Blind
by NomSujet
Summary: Her brother Leo was the one obsessed with One Piece, not her! Unluckily for Cecilia, they're both shipped off into the pirate world for their 'safety'- yeah right! Even more unluckily, Cecilia becomes blind in this new world for reasons unknown. They travel with the Strawhats in search of a way home- even though home may not be safe for them anymore. [No Pairings] [Rewriting]
1. Consequences of a Foolish Life

Disclaimer: I have never owned, nor will I ever own, One Piece. Unfortunately.

A/N: My first fanfiction ever, so please review and tell me how I did!

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><p>"Please join me in welcoming our newest student president, Cecilia Daring!" the principal announced.<p>

The entire auditorium burst into enthusiastic clapping. I stood up from my seat, and elegantly stepped up to the podium.

"Fellow students and honoured staff, I am very happy to be privileged-" I was rudely interrupted, however by the sound of an idiot's voice.

"Hey, Cecily! Wake up!"

I groaned. _It was only a dream? _I thought. I slowly opened my eyes, only to see a _certain someone's _face.

"Gah! Get away from me, you pervert!" I exclaimed, pushing my older brother away from me. What annoyed me even more was the fact that he just laughed.

"You know you love me!" he said, waggling his eyebrows.

"I didn't know you read Gossip Girl." I teased. Unfortunately, he was unfazed.

"I have a wide variety of reading sources."

"Just get out of my room, Leo. Stalker."

"We live in the same house. More specifically, _my _house. I'm not exactly a stalker."

"Whatever, just go!" He finally left, laughing the entire time. God, he annoys me to no end. I can't believe we're actually related.

I am Cecilia Daring, and that was my older brother, Leo. Though I usually just call him perverted, annoying, stalkerish, ecetera, ecetera.

I dragged myself out of bed, and started to brush my hair.

* * *

><p>When I arrived at school, I immediately felt the stares of everyone around me. Well, it's to be expected, being the most popular girl in school. And believe me, I worked hard for that status. It took hours and hours of studying, and hours and hours at the gym, training. Frankly, I think I deserve being popular.<p>

Wow, that sounded egotistical.

"Cecilia!" I heard someone call from behind me. I turned around to see my friends heading towards me. I put on my winning smile.

"Hello, Amy, Evangeline. How are you?" They giggled.

"Oh, Cecilia, you don't need to be so polite all the time. Loosen up!" Amy said.

"Heh, I guess." I replied. Sadly, everyone at school only saw me for my disguise. Ah well. Another price of being popular, although I sometimes did wonder what I was working so hard for.

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><p>As I walked home, I did some thinking. And when you were a senior in high school, there was plenty to think about. Specifically, what to do after graduation. University was out of the question. There was no way Leo could earn enough money for four more years of schooling. And our parents were kinda dead. It's a long story, one I don't want to get into for another fifty years.<p>

Most of my classmates already had a straightforward plan in life. Lucky them. I, on the other hand, didn't know what I was going to do at all. I suppose I should get a job or something. But what?

"I'm home." I said as I entered our house. There was no answer. _Strange, _I thought. _Leo should be home by now. _

As soon as I entered my room, I was in for the biggest shock of my life.

Leo was lying on the floor, either unconscious or… I didn't want to think about it. Meanwhile, a strange person wearing a cloak that covered his face was sitting calmly on my bed and drinking tea. Tea!

"Who the hell are you and what have you done to Leo?" I demanded.

"Tsk, tsk. A lady shouldn't be so brash. Why don't you calm down and join me with a cup of Earl Grey?" he said serenely with a British accent.

"Hell no!" The creepy guy sighed.

"Let me ask you something, Ms. Daring. What is the most important thing in life?"

"I don't know, money? Wait a minute, why I am answering your question? You should be answering mine! And how do you know my name?"

"You do not truly see the wonderful things in life. And so, I've been given permission to teach you a lesson."

"What the frick are you talking about?"

"Have fun. I wish you good luck." There was suddenly a flash of light, and I was temporarily blinded.

* * *

><p>When I opened my eyes, all I could see was nothing. Well, there were three strange lights in front of me. One was red, the other was green, and the last one was orange. I reached out for the green one, and ended up poking something. Skin?<p>

"What the- why is she poking me?" I heard a gruff voice say.

"I think there's something wrong with her eyes, they're pure black!" the orange light said.

"What?" I said. "What's wrong with my eyes? Where am I? Where's Leo? Who are you?"

"Woah, woah, slow down there." The orange light said.

"I can't see…why can't I see?" I was starting to seriously panic.

"Oh, boy. Okay, you need to calm down. First, what is with your eyes? They are entirely black!"

"What? They weren't like that before!"

"I don't know if this is a new disease or something." Orange continued. "It might even be contagious. Hey, what's your name, girl?"

"C-Cecilia Daring."

"Do you know that guy over there?"

"What? Where?" I looked around frantically, until I saw a glowing white light off to my right. "What does he look like?"

"Oh shit, I think she's blind. Um, well, the guy has light brown hair like you, wears glasses, and has a sweatshirt on, and jeans."

"Leo!" I tried to get up, but I suddenly felt dizzy, and laid back down. And that's when Leo decided to wake up. I couldn't see anything, but the next thing I knew, the white light was directly in front of me, shielding me from the three other lights.

"G-get away from my little sister!" It said. During all this, my poor brain was trying to grasp everything. _Okay, calm down, C, _I thought. _First problem: I can't see. But I can see these weird lights. When I reached out for one, I touched skin. So…do these lights represent people? I guess…then…the white light is Leo?_

Meanwhile, Leo had stopped yelling, and I could somehow sense that he was confused. I guess I just know him too well.

"Wait a minute…are you…oh my God!" he exclaimed.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked, afraid that they were kidnappers or something.

"Luffy, Zoro, Nami…oh my God oh my God oh my God…."

"What, you know them?"

"Hey, we're already famous!" the red one spoke, sounding strangely happy.

"That's a bad thing, you idiot!" the orange one yelled.

"Oh, you're famous, alright." Leo muttered. "In our world."

_What?_

"Hey, Leo, what the heck are you talking about?" I asked. And that's when I assumed he saw my eyes.

"What the fuck? What's with your eyes?"

"I don't know! All I know is that I can't see anything except these strange lights…that I think are people." For some reason, saying my theory out loud was a little embarrassing. Probably 'cause it was so farfetched. "Like, you're a white light, and those three are red, green, and orange."

"…"

"Anyways, where are we?"

"We're…on a ship. A crappy little ship, the one the Strawhats had before the Going Merry."

"What the crap are you talking about?"

"You know all those manga I read? The ones you insist on calling picture books? Well, there's this one called One Piece, and…right now, we're meeting the main characters."

"…we're in a picture book?"

"It's called manga!"

"Whatever." I then proceeded to tell Leo about the weird British guy.

"…this sounds like a fanfiction."

(A/N: Leo, stop breaking the fourth wall! I have to repair it later!)

"So I guess Mr. Tea sent us here, and made my eyes all weird."

"I guess so."

"Excuse me, are you done talking over there?" Ms. Orange asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Leo said.

"Hey, hey, wanna join my crew?" Mr. Red asked.

"What?" I replied.

"They're pirates." Leo whispered to me.

"Pirates?" I exclaimed. "We're on a pirate ship?"

"Calm down, C, they're the good kind. I'd actually call them adventurers, not pirates."

"Well, I'm gonna trust you this one time. Just. This. One. Time."

"…I should record this moment." I groaned. Even when I was blind and stuck in another world, Leo always seemed to be fooling around.

"Hey, answer my question!" Red demanded.

"Sure, why not?" Leo replied calmly.

"What? Leo, what are you saying? They're still lawbreakers, we can't join them!" I felt his hand cover my mouth.

"I'll talk to you later." He whispered. Then louder, he said, "I suppose we have some explaining to do."

We went through with some introductions. Red was Luffy, the captain. Green was Zoro, (with one r, Leo said.) the first mate and swordsman. Orange was Nami, the navigator. I guess they seemed okay, for pirates anyways. Then again, I don't exactly have anyone to compare them to.

Leo then explained about us being from a different world. Luffy and Zoro accepted it right away, but Nami was very suspicious. Well, we were in the middle of the ocean, so we were kinda stuck here whether we liked it or not. And believe me, Leo _loved _it.

Later, when we were alone, Leo finally told me why he decided to join.

"Okay, basically, all of the pirates in this world are all after one thing-a mystical treasure called One Piece. It's said that if you find it, you would have wealth, fame, and power beyond your wildest imaginations. We all know where it is, but no one knows exactly what it is. Gold? The secret to immortality? Maybe even something else. Whatever it is, there might be something there that could help your eyes, or get us home."

"But there's no guarantee, is there?"

"This world is big, Cecilia. And it's filled with many strange things. For example, Luffy is made of rubber. He ate a mystical fruit that turned him into that."

"Um, okay?"

"There're islands in the sky, and islands in the sea. Each island in this world is like a universe of its own. There's gotta be something to help you."

"It may be a big world, but it's also dangerous, isn't it? How are we supposed to fend for ourselves if I can't even see? And you're only 20, barely an adult." And that's when Leo surprised me with something I never thought he'd do.

He kissed me on the forehead, and said, "I'll protect you no matter what, little sister. You can always depend on me."

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><p>AN: Awww….family fluff! :D Anyways, I know this was kinda short, but it's just the beginning. Please review and tell me how I did!

-Nomsujet


	2. Impossible Dreams

Disclaimer: I will probably never own One Piece.

We travelled for a couple of days. I somehow figured out some things about my new…situation. Now that I was blind, my other senses have heightened. Such as my sense of smell. I could identify who was who with just my nose. Luffy obviously smelled like rubber. Zoro smelled grossly like a combination of blood, sweat, metal, and alcohol. Nami smelled like tangerines and money. Leo was coffee and food.

After a week of being together, Nami's suspicions subsided somewhat. Probably because we haven't murdered them in their sleep or something.

Zoro was also suspicious; I could practically feel him glare at me every time I said something strange. But for some reason, he completely accepted the fact I was from another universe altogether. Turns out that wherever they are, boys were always confusing.

Meanwhile, I was seriously missing my sight. I mean, I was in a whole different world, and I couldn't even see it for myself. It sucked. Plus, I now had to depend on Leo for everything! I even fell overboard a couple times 'cause I didn't acknowledge exactly _how _small the ship was.

"Land ho!" Leo called out. He had officially deemed himself as the 'lookout'.

"It's a small island, with only one village called Syrup Town." Nami said, walking up beside me. I could always count on her to know where we are. Once we reached the island, Leo led me off our boat.

"Someone's there." Zoro suddenly said. I looked around frantically, and then I saw a new light that seemed to be floating in midair. It was an orangey-brown colour.

"I am the Great Pirate Usopp, the captain of the pirate crew that took over this village!" it called out to us.

Oh shit, pirates. I clutched onto Leo's sleeve tighter. For some reason, he just laughed quietly enough for me to hear him.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "It's just a guy with the world's longest nose, and his three friends. They're harmless."

I let go of a breath I didn't realise I was holding. 'The Great Pirate Usopp' kept on rambling.

"Don't waste your energy trying to defeat me, lowly pirates, for I have a legion of 80 million men under my control!"

80 million? More like him and the three little lights beside him that were probably hidden.

"AWESOME!" I heard Luffy yell out. God, if the entire crew was this gullible, then I'd better start writing my will.

"He's lying," Nami said. Okay, maybe I could hold off on the will thing.

"Crap, she saw through it!" Usopp exclaimed. After that, I zoned out. Basically, Usopp went all panicky, Nami saw through all his tricks, the three little ones ran away, and then Luffy went surprisingly serious.

"Are you willing to bet your life on that?" Luffy asked Usopp. The air around us suddenly felt as thick as the 'pudding' in my school cafeteria.

"We are real pirates, after all." Zoro said. I could hear a shing as he unsheathed his sword with his thumb.

There was a moment of silence, but I bet it felt like hours to poor Usopp. I could practically feel the fear rolling off of him.

Eventually, he just gave up. "Real pirates are a lot more intimidating than I thought." He said.

And that's when Luffy and Zoro burst out laughing.

"I was repeating what someone else said." Luffy said. "Shanks said that."

"Eh?! You know Red-Haired Shanks?" Usopp exclaimed.

"Who the frick is Red-Haired Shanks?" I whispered.

"One of the world's most famous pirates. One of the closest to One Piece." Leo explained.

"Oh, great. Wouldn't it be just fantastic if this Shanks guy found One Piece before we even get close?"

"Don't worry, no one has found it yet, and won't for a long time."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Read all the chapters, watched all the episodes?"

"Right."

"And guess what? Usopp's dad is in Shank's crew."

"Oh okay. I don't really care."

That's when the Usopp light fell off…whatever he was standing on.

Then Leo went all nerd on me and told me all about how Shanks saved Luffy as a kid and yadayadayada.

"Woah, what's with your eyes?" Usopp said to me. "Are you a demon?!"

"It's a long story." I sighed. "And I am not a demon."

"Really? You could've fooled me." Leo said.

I punched in the direction of the white light. "Shut up."

Usopp led us to a restaurant, where we all had a filling meal. Of course, Leo had to order for me, but for once he did something right. I think that was the best meat I've ever had.

Meanwhile, Luffy and Usopp were having a great time talking about Yasopp.

"Oh by the way, do you know anyone who could help us get a ship?" Nami asked.

"Uh, well, no, no one here can help you." Usopp was obviously lying, but I kept quiet.

"There was this mansion though," Zoro said.

"Yeah, they could help us." Leo added.

"NO! No, you can't go there! Ah…I just remembered that I gotta go do something. Bye!"

And then he left.

"Eh…we're gonna go for a walk. Come on, C." Leo lifted we by my arm and led me out the door.

"Hey, where're you taking me?" I asked.

"Like I said, for a walk. We're gonna have a talk."

Oh shit. I've only ever heard Leo say, 'we're gonna have a talk' when things were serious.

"What is it?"

"Well, I do have some questions. First of all, tell me about your sight."

"Like I said, I can only see people, who are represented by these coloured lights. I just think of them like people's souls or something. And I can smell and hear better now. Lately, I've been sensing how people feel, too. It's kinda weird."

"Okay. Oh, and once we get to Loguetown, I'll buy you some sunglasses so people won't be staring at you all the time. And I'll get some weapons there too. I'm thinking something like a bow and arrow for you, since you can see people whether they're hiding or not, right? And a good old-fashioned gun for me. I don't have time to learn how use a sword or anything like that. Oh, but we don't have any beli! I guess I can just borrow some from Nami. But I don't want any debt…."

There he goes into rambling mode. When he's like this, it's smart to just walk away. He could talk to himself for hours.

"Hey, Leo?"

"What?"

"Please shut up."

"I refuse. Anyways, I've doing some thinking, and have decided that I am going to tell you all about One Piece."

"Why?"

"It'd be good if you knew what's going to happen, like I do. So, starting from right now…"

As we walked down the worn path through the village, Leo talked on and on about some guy named Kuro, the Baratie, and fishmen. I didn't really listen though. The way I thought of it, as long as I don't mess with the main plotline and hid in the ship every time we got attacked, I should be fine.

I closed my eyes and tapped into my other senses. The smell of food-someone must be cooking. Some usual bird chirps. The rustling of the leaves. _Ah, even if you're in a different world, some things never change. _

"You still haven't solved your old problem?" My eyes opened, but since I could only see darkness, it was a bit disorienting.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Leo.

"What?"

"I just heard someone ask me, 'You still haven't solved your old problem?'"

"Oh, I know who it is. It's Kuro, telling Jango all about his plan."

"Who the heck are they?"

"I just told you about them!"

"I wasn't listening, duh."

"Well, let's go check it out!" And then he ran off, forgetting that I was kinda blind.

"Ugh, Leo!" I followed the white light, and then I crashed into a tree. And then it got weird. By that, I mean things got weirder than usual.

I started sinking into the tree. Head first. I tried to call for Leo, but I felt like I was underwater. And that's when I blacked out.

Ever heard of lucid dreaming? It's when you're conscious of what you're doing, even when you're dreaming. I've never experienced it myself, until now.

I was back at my high school, and I could see! I looked around, but couldn't see anyone. Not even Mr. Dytsha, our janitor. He practically lived in the school.

"Hello, Ms. Daring." I whirled around. Looks like I spoke too soon.

"Oh, hi, Mr. D."

"Did you miss this place?"

"I dunno, I kinda missed my sight more." He chuckled quietly.

"Well, that is to be expected. Are you enjoying yourself in another world?"

"Not really. I'd rather stay here." I didn't know why I was telling him all this. Probably because it was only a dream.

"Well, you should start having a little fun. You're gonna be there for a long time."

That's when I started feeling suspicious. "What do you mean?"

"You want to come back home, don't you? Well, too bad for you, then."

"You are _not _Mr. Dytsha."

He chuckled evilly. "Took you long enough." That's when I realized what I thought was Mr. D was actually an illusion. The person standing in front of me was a guy around my age. He had dark brown hair and eyes. Or I should say, eye. His right eye seemed to have been sewn closed (ew), and had a tattoo that was the card symbol for cloves over it. He wore a plain, no logo black t-shirt, and a pair of jeans. Slung across his body was a bulging leather bag.

"Then who are you? Why are you in my dream?"

"Oh, this isn't a dream, Ms. Daring. And for your information, my name is Derek Landy. Pleased to meet you. Not."

_Well, aren't you rude. _I thought grumpily. That's when he pulled out a gun from his pocket. My eyes widened, and I took a step back.

"Don't worry, it's not for you. It's for your brother." He threw it at my feet. "He'll need a lot sooner than Loguetown."

"What, can you see the future or something?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I can see everything in the your future with my left eye. Don't ask about my right."

"Wasn't going to."

"Smart girl. And for you…" He reached into his bag and took out an entire set of bow and arrows. He handed them to me.

"These used to belong to er, a friend of mine, I guess you can say. They're a lot different from normal arrows. For one, they return to you after hitting their target. Second, you see how the ends are all different shapes from regular arrows? Weeeeeellll, each one has a different ability."

"…and those 'abilities' are…?"

"I ain't telling. What fun would that be? Anyways, I gotta go. I have date in an hour, an-"

"Wait! Who are you, exactly? Or should I ask, _what _are you? And why are you helping me?"

"Like I said, I am Derek Landy. Just your average Lacriyon."

"Cecilia! Wake up!"

I groaned, and felt déjà vu. Why is it that my annoying brother must always interrupt my dreams just when something important was happening? I slowly opened my eyes, saw the blinding light in front of me, then quickly shut them again.

"Cecilia? Cecilia!"

"Go away, you imbecile, you're blinding me. Pun not intended."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." When I opened my eyes again, the light was a lot more tolerable, since it was farther away.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, I, uh, sorta left you behind, and when I look back, you were sinking into a tree. I tried to pull you back, but you ended up sinking all the way into the tree. A few seconds later, though, it kinda spat you out. And I've been spending the last two minutes trying to wake you up."

_It was only a few seconds? It felt a lot longer,_ I thought. My hand bumped against something. "What's this?" I picked it up. It was a gun.

"Uh, where'd you get that?"

"I guess he was telling the truth after all. That was more than a dream…" I muttered. "I got it from some weird guy in my…dream. He said it's for you." I handed it to him. "Now, there should be some bow and arrows around here…."

"You mean like the ones you're carrying?"

I touched my shoulder, and sure enough, I felt the leather strap of the bag containing the weapon.

"Well looks like our problems are solved. We've got weapons now, so we can defend ourselves if necessary. Let's go find the others."

_No questions whatsoever about the dude in my dream…_ I thought. _Idiot. He'll probably get himself killed one day due to his ignorance. _

We met up with the Strawhats while they were in the middle of plotting against Kuro. (Well, that's what Leo told me, anyway.)

"Hey, where'd you get those cool weapons?" Luffy asked, excited.

"It's a secret." Leo and I said in unison. I could feel Nami's suspicion grow, but I chose to ignore it.

After they explained the plan to us (technically to me, since Leo knew all about it anyway.), I found a somewhat comfortable spot near the place where we predicted the pirates would anchor, and tried to sleep.

The others took turns as lookout throughout the night. That's when I noticed something else about my sight problem. When I looked at Leo, who was asleep next to me, his light was a lot dimmer than usual. I was in the middle of thinking, when I felt someone poke me on the cheek.

"Hey, Cecil, are you awake?" It was Luffy.

"Yeah, I am." I sat up. "What do you want? And my name's Cecilia, not Cecil."

"But Cecil is a lot easier to say than that other one!" he pouted.

I sighed. "Fine, fine, call me whatever you want. Now, what is it?"

"What's Earth like?"

I had to think about it for a second. Should I tell him about Earth, which may or may not cause a humongous paradox? Sure, why not.

"Well, it's like here, except we have seven seas. And seven continents. We don't have all these islands like yours." See Leo, I _was_ sort of paying attention earlier! "And there aren't as many pirates."

"Your world sounds boring."

"And your world sounds dangerous."

"That's what makes it fun! So, what's your goal in life?"

"What?"

"Like, I'm going to be the pirate king, and Zoro wants to be the world's best swordsman! What about you?"

"Hm, I never really thought about it. After school, I need to get a job, but I don't know what I really want to do. I guess I'm just like millions of other people, who just go along with the wave of the world."

"…You're boring."

I hit him. "That's rude!"

He just laughed. I shushed him. "The others deserve their rest, idiot! Anyways, not everyone is like you, you know. With your straightforward future. I only know one person like you, and that's Leo. He already knows he wants to start his own company, something to do with computers. And he's good at it, too."

"What's a computer?" Oh shit.

"It's complicated."

"So it's a mystery thing."

"Sure, let's go with that."

"…if you're going to be in my crew, you need a dream."

Ah great, we've made a full circle. "First of all, that's ridiculous. Second, I didn't agree, my brother did for the both of us."

"Well, do you want to join my crew?"

I facepalmed. "I don't want to, but I have to."

"So what's your dream?"

"…I guess I've always liked to write stories."

"'kay, so you can write a book about our adventure!"

"Um, hello? I'm kinda blind! How can I write like this?"

"You can tell me, and I can write it down for you!"

"…spell 'halitosis' for me."

"What? Uh, I don't know that one, but you probably aren't gonna use that often, right?"

" 'The man leaned forward, and I could tell he had halitosis. I swiftly punched in the gut and ran off. Once safe, I leaned against the main office building and caught my breath. A fatal mistake on my part, for the Italian mafia had found me then…'"

"Slow down! That's not fair, you talk too fast! And too formal!"

"You wouldn't have enough time or patience anyway. Just give up, I don't really care anyway."

"…"

We sat in awkward silence, until I finally realized he was asleep. I sighed. _I guess I can keep lookout. Can't sleep anyway. _

I felt the sun's rays on my face. _Ah, _I thought. _The sun must be rising. _Unexpectedly, I felt tears run down my cheek.

A/N: Next chapter will be the end of this arc! I hoped you enjoyed it, and thanks to everyone who read this! If you have time, please review, and tell me what you liked or disliked! I'm trying to improve as an author, so some feedback would be helpful!

Thanks again for reading!

-Nomsujet


	3. Black Light Enemies

Disclaimer: * sigh * Haven't we been through with this? I. Don't. Own. One. Piece. This will count for the entire story, okay?

* * *

><p>Once we realized that the pirates were coming from a different place, we hurried over there. Well, most of us, anyway.<p>

"Stay here, Cecilia!" My brother pushed me down into a sitting position. "It's too dangerous!"

"Well, what about you?" I demanded. "You're only a few years older than me!"

"I'm not blind."

"…"

And then he left, knowing he had won the argument. I looked over to my right, and saw Zoro's light still hadn't left.

"What are you doing, Zoro?" I asked. "They need you over there!"

"That stupid woman pushed me onto the oil, and now I can't get up!"

"Oh. You want some help?"

"No, I can do it myse-oof!"

"…you just fell down, didn't you?"

"…yep."

"Want some help now? I won't hold it against you or anything."

"…don't tell anyone. Ever."

I laughed. "Sure." I held out my hand. I felt him grab onto mine. His hand was big and coarse from years of sword training. It easily covered mine. I pulled back as hard as I could, and finally managed to pull him out of the oil area.

"Thanks," he grunted. "Now, where's North?"

That's when I remembered the fact that Zoro was seriously directionally challenged. I wanted to help, but I couldn't remember which direction Leo went in.

Apparently, Zoro didn't know either. And he also didn't care. "Let's go." He said, and that's when I realized he was still holding my hand. I felt my face go as red as a tomato.

"Wait, uh, Leo said I shouldn't leave here!"

Zoro paused. "Well I guess-"

"Found you!" A singsong voice called out. I turned around to see a black light. I know that didn't make a lot of sense, but it was the best way I can describe it.

"Who are you?" Zoro demanded. The person (that I assumed was a woman) laughed. It was tinkly kind of laugh.

"Why would I tell you? Insolent child. You even need a little girl to help you out of some simple oil. Pathetic."

Zoro's anger came off him in waves.

"That was low," I said, gritting my teeth. This woman was making me irritated as well.

"I'm evil. I don't need to fight with honor." There was a sudden flurry of movement, and the sound of metal striking metal.

"Run." I heard Zoro mutter. "She's for real."

I quickly backed up a few paces, about to run for my life.

"Oh, darling, I can't let you do that. Nez!"

I heard someone land behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw another black light.

Nez grabbed a hold of my arm. I panicked, and tried to kick him. Suddenly, Zoro jumped over to my side and slashed at Nez. He quickly let go, and I ran.

"Ch, you're a pesky little bug. Guess I have to get rid of you first." The woman's light came up behind Zoro, and he was now surrounded.

Meanwhile, I was standing off to the side, silently freaking out. _Aw shit, what do I do what do I do what do I do wait a minute…_

That's when I remembered the bow and arrows Derek had given me. I quickly took out the bow, and a random arrow. Fumbling a bit, I positioned the arrow and concentrated on the black lights. I used to take archery, so I knew exactly what to do.

By then, I had no idea which black light was which, but I didn't care. As long as I didn't hit the green one, I'd be fine. I took careful aim.

One…

Two…

_Now!_ Through my eyes, I saw a streak of white light hit one of the black lights squarely in the centre.

"Yes!" I pumped my fist in the air with triumph. I felt the arrow reappear in my hand. "'kay, now for the other one…"

And that's when I noticed that something strange was happening.

"Kiss me." The woman said. To Zoro.

The air practically froze. Everyone stopped moving. And I'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a few seconds.

"…what?" I heard Zoro say, clearly confused.

_Each of these arrows have a special ability._

_And those abilities are?_

_What fun would it be if I told you! You'll figure it out._

Derek, you son of a bitch. If I ever see you again, I'm kicking you where it hurts.

I frantically felt the top part of the arrow, and sure enough, it was the shape of a heart.

"I think I just changed the world of One Piece forever." I said. I had no idea whether the two black lights were part of the original plot, but I did know the woman probably wasn't supposed fall in love with Zoro. No one was supposed to fall in love!

"Kiss me, you sexy green haired beast." The woman demanded. I could feel Zoro's embarrassment and discomfort. Wait, Zoro had green hair?

Nez, on the other hand, was practically boiling with anger. "Ravenia, what are you doing? You're _my _girlfriend!"

Well.

Shit.

Fortunately, Zoro pulled himself together and quickly slashed them both, dimming their lights. They faded, until they disappeared.

"Tch, they got away." Zoro said. I assumed that they weren't dead, and had just teleported or something. I honestly didn't question anything anymore.

"What did you do?" he asked, walking over to me. "The woman went all…weird when you hit her with the arrow."

"Well, uh, it's a long story. But you have other things to worry about. You know, Kuro, Kaya, and all that jazz?"

"…don't think that I'll forget about this." And with that, he ran off.

I slowly sat down and tried to shake off the feelings of adrenaline and terror. _That was my first battle, _I realized. _I guess Derek did know what he was doing. _

"Glad to know that I'm appreciated." I quickly looked up, and saw a white light.

"Leo?"

"Nope, it's me, Derek! Or have you forgotten about me already?"

"…damn, do I wish I could see you right now. Then I could hurt you. Wait, you can read my mind?"

"Harsh. So I see you've tried out the arrows. And yes, I can. I know everything about you. Including your bra size."

"Pervert stalker."

"Let's go back to the arrows."

"Yeah, I used one. And it ended up disastrous!"

"Woah, calm down, Miss Glass Half Empty. The big guy defeated them, right? So what's the prob?"

"What's the prob? Everything is the 'prob!' That woman, Ravenia or something, is now in love with Zoro! Zo! Ro! And she has a boyfriend! I just messed up the entire plot!"

"They weren't part of the plot."

"Oh, that's a relief….then what were they?"

"Are you on your cycle or something?"

"Garh!" I lunged for him, and ended up falling on my face. "I could see you before, why can't I see you now, when I need to?"

"Calm down, geez. It was just a joke."

"…you're even more annoying than Leo. And that's saying something. You know, now that I think about it, you and him are a lot alike. You'd probably be great friends."

"Good to know."

"Your sudden mood change irritates me, since it proves that you actually can be serious, though you probably choose not to most of the time. Am I right?"

"Spot on, sistah!"

"Shut. Up. That was the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Something like that is not meant to be said aloud. What, are you fricking stupid? Damn idiot, I hope you step on Lego, fall on your face and die."

"…"

I rolled over onto my back, staring up at the sky that I couldn't see. I felt Derek lie down beside me.

"Go away."

"Don't feel like it."

I sighed. There was no winning with this guy. If only he had been around when I was going through middle school. I could've unleashed him on those annoying girls who kept making fun of my braces.

A warm breeze blew over us. Perfect weather for kite flying. I vividly remembered the few times I went kite flying with my family. Leo always seemed to manage to get his kite stuck in something, ranging from a tree to some construction worker on a roof. That was probably the day I learned all the swear words I know now. I chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Be quiet, I'm reminiscing."

In the distance, I heard the sound of fighting. But I wasn't worried. According to Leo, the series has been going on for 15 years, so I doubted that this was the end. If it was, then Leo had horrible taste.

I closed my eyes, and succumbed to sleep.

* * *

><p>When I woke up, I was greeted with the sight of a blinding white light.<p>

"Dude, Leo, you've gotta remember not to be in my face when I wake up."

"Right, sorry."

"So, what happened?"

"Luffy won, as expected. What about you?"

That's when I remembered what happened earlier. I groaned.

"It's a long story." I proceeded to tell Leo what happened with the strange, black light people. He burst out laughing.

"Y-you, ha ha! Made some random girl fall in frigging _love _with Zoro?"

"Yes, yes, I know. Do you know those people? Ravenia and Nez?"

"Nope."

"Great, we've created a huge paradox."

"Well, they might've been with the tea drinking British guy, and I know for sure they're not part of the plot. So don't worry about it, C."

I sighed. "I guess I have to trust you. Again. Ugh, I hate having to _trust _you for things."

"You have hurt me in my heart."

"I don't really care."

"I don't remember raising you like this, you ungrateful child!"

"You didn't raise me at all!"

"Or did I?"

"You are _exactly _like Derek."

"Who?"

"Derek. World's most annoying person. Well, next to you."

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"What, no!"

"Don't worry, I won't be all protective like Dad. As long as he's not a Naruto fan. I hate Naruto. One Piece forever!"

"Please don't go all geek on me again."

"…when we get home, I'm going to tie to a chair and force you to watch anime."

"I have a weapon now."

"So do I, Cecilia."

"I also have those pictures from that party you weren't supposed to go to. You know, the one where you-"

Leo quickly covered my mouth. When he spoke, his voice was strained. "Where…did you get those pictures?"

"Your ex. Who was the friend of my friend."

"Listen Cecilia, you will not speak of that party ever again. To anyone. You will also burn those photos."

"No promises, Leo. I still haven't forgiven you for my sixth birthday party."

"Aw, come on, that was over ten years ago!"

"Whatever. Anyway, I'm hungry. Is there any food around?"

"Yeah, we're just having a little party. I'll be right back."

As Leo left, I saw a familiar green light heading towards me. I closed my eyes and groaned again.

"Hey, Mr. Swordsman. How's life?"

"You know why I'm here, so cut to the chase. What happened back there?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure myself, but basically, I got sucked into a tree and then I was back in my world. And then this weird guy named Derek gave me the bow and arrows, and Leo's gun. And he told me the arrows came back to you after they hit their target. And the fact that each arrow has some kind of special power."

"Magic?" Zoro asked, incredulous.

"Yeah, I know, but how else can you explain it?"

"Hm."

"So I think I hit that woman with this arrow." I fumbled around in my arrow holder for a few seconds before my hand landed upon the heart shaped handle.

I pulled it out and showed it to Zoro. "I'm going to call it Cupid's Arrow."

"Did this Derek tell you what they each do?"

"Nope. Damn him. He just laughed and told me to figure it out."

Zoro snorted, and took a drink of whatever he was drinking. I assumed it was alcohol.

"Anyways, that woman is totally in love with you."

"Eh, whatever. I can handle a girl."

"You being sexist?"

"Huh? No. My greatest rival was a girl."

"Was?"

There was a moment of silence.

"…she's dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I tried to put as much sympathy as I could in my voice.

"I don't need your pity." He promptly replied. "It was a long time ago."

"…my parents are dead, too." I wanted to kick myself. Why did I tell him that?

"You don't have to tell me this if you don't want to, you know."

"Thanks. It happened recently, so I'd rather not talk about it."

Zoro grunted understandingly. After a while, his light dimmed, and he started snoring.

In other words, he was asleep.

"Déjà vu," I muttered to myself, remembering last night. I looked up, and saw a familiar white light.

I stood up and walked over to it, but I unexpectedly fell straight into water with a big splash.

Immediately, I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me back up to the surface.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Leo yelled.

I closed my eyes. "I thought you were standing over there…" I pointed behind me.

"The only thing there is our new ship, the Going Merry." Leo said. "Now, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah…" I replied. If that was the ship, then why did I see a soul?

* * *

><p>With Usopp as our new crewmember, we set sail in our thankfully bigger ship.<p>

"Hey, Cecil, can either of you cook?" Luffy asked me. "Nami keeps on charging us when she cooks."

"Well, I can't cook at all, but Leo is pretty good, I guess." I said.

"Great, he can make lunch!" Luffy then ran off to bug Leo.

"Leo may be a good cook, but we should really get a real one." I said to myself.

I closed my eyes, and breathed in the fresh sea air. I've never been on the sea before coming to this world, and I do admit, it's quite fun.

When I opened my eyes, I was back at my school. "Oh great, not this again." I groaned. "Come on, Derek, get out here already!"

"My name is not even close to Derek, but if you would like to call me that, go ahead."

I whirled around. Standing behind me was a tall man who looked around twenty years old. He wore a top hat, and a long, black coat. Wrapped around his neck was a scarf with an elaborate design. On the end of it, I saw the letter 'N'.

"Who are you?" I asked, reaching for my arrows, just in case.

"No need for the hostility," the man said. "My name is Nez."

His name sparked my memory. I pulled my bow out. "You're the guy from earlier!"

He held his hands up. "I come in peace."

I rolled my eyes. "How clichéd can you get?"

"I need your help," he calmly replied.

"What would you need _me _for?" I asked, giving him my best glare.

"Getting Ravenia back."

* * *

><p>AN: And that's chapter three! And now for some important info:

I won't be able to post much until after May 13th, 2012. I have my piano theory exam on the 12th, and my dad has banned me from the computer until it's over. I'm allowed today 'cause I have no school. So I'm sorry, but chapter four may be for a while.

I have a new poll on my profile page. It's for who should I pair Cecilia up with. There's of course, a 'no one' option, and an 'other' option. If you select 'other', PM me with your request.

That's all! Review if you have time!

-NomSujet


	4. The Restaurant Upon the Waves

I was awoken from my sleep by a rough shaking.

"What's going on?" I asked sleepily.

"The idiot duo is trying out the cannon." Zoro replied. I looked over to my left at Usopp and Luffy. The Idiot Duo had quite a nice ring to it. It suited them just fine, too.

"Have they hit anything?"

"Yeah, Usopp's pretty good at this kind of stuff. By the way, we have a pirate symbol now."

"Oh really? What'sit look like?"

"Just a skull wearing a straw hat."

"Why a straw hat?"

"Luffy wears it all the time. It's his treasure."

"Hmmm."

"Lunch is ready!" I heard Leo call.

"Let's go." Zoro grabbed my wrist and led me to the kitchen. He even pulled out a chair for me.

As we started eating, Luffy started talking.

"You know what? Usopp is now the sniper. Nami's the navigator and Zoro's the swordsman and first mate. Leo can be the cook."

"Huh? I'm not _that_ good. You should get a real one. One that makes better food. I'll just be lookout."

"I guess…" Luffy pouted. "but what we really need is…"

"A shipwright, right?" I said. "I mean, if our ship gets damaged in battle, what would we do?"

"That's true." Nami agreed. "Then I'd feel safer, and we wouldn't have to pay for repairs or anything."

"No!" Luffy slammed his hand on the table. Well, I assumed it was his hand. It could've been his head for all I knew. "What we need is a musician! Cecil! You're our musician!"

Leo burst out laughing. "Her? She's tone deaf! Ha ha ha ha!"

I glared at him. "I'm not tone deaf. I just…can't match up with other people."

"Which is the definition of 'tone deaf'."

"Where's your leg so I can kick it…" I muttered.

"Then what _are _you good at?" Luffy asked. I thought about it.

"Not much, I guess…"

"Come on, you've got to be good at something." Nami said.

"Well, I used to take archery lessons, but I'm nowhere near as good as Usopp."

"But your arrows are different, aren't they?" Zoro butted in.

"How so?" Nami asked.

"Well…" I then explained about Zoro and my encounter with Ravenia and Nez.

"Coooool, you know magic!" Luffy exclaimed.

"It's not me, it's the arrows. I don't have any magical powers."

"Well, whatever~! Cecil is our new magician. All in favour, say aye!"

The group gave out a half-hearted 'aye'.

I sighed. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside. Everyone got up and gathered at the window.

"Someone's tearing up our ship." Zoro explained before I had the chance to ask.

"Shouldn't you go and stop him?"

"It's just one person, Luffy can take him."

"I see…"

Resting my chin on my hand, I thought back to my conversation with Nez.

"Oh, right, sorry about that, dude, but life moves on."

"No, you don't understand. Lives depend on this." He stepped closer to me.

"Melodramatic much? It's just a girl."

"_Your _life depends on this. Mainly yours, anyway."

"Huh?"

"We are Lacriyons."

"That's what Derek said he was…"

"You've met Derek, huh…annoying, isn't he?"

"Tell me about it, you know the other day-don't change the subject!"

He sighed. "Bottom line is, you need to figure out a way for Ravenia to love me again, and only me."

"And why should I?"

"Don't you feel any guilt?"

"I'm a teenage girl. I have no guilt when it comes to romance."

"Well, what if I said I could bring your parents back?"

"Been there, done that. No one can bring back the dead, blah blah blah."

"Smarter than I thought…" I heard him say under his breath. "How about holding your loved ones hostage?"

"Parents are dead, and Leo is Leo."

He suddenly fell to his knees. "Please, I beg you!"

_This just got really awkward, _I thought. "Fine, but no promises, alright? I don't even know how these damn arrows work."

"Thank you." Nez got back up. "Here is a sign of my appreciation." He handed me a pair of sunglasses.

"Oh, thanks." I tried them on. "So, care to explain what a Lacriyon i-"

And that's when I appeared back on the ship.

Lacriyons, whatever they were, were a royal pain in the ass.

Thankfully, nobody asked about my new sunglasses. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Turns out Zoro knew the guy who was destroying our ship (who Luffy defeated pretty easily). My sunglasses didn't deter what's left of my sight, fortunately, and I could see that the new guy had a grey light.

"My name is Johnny! And you killed my partner!" said Grey.

"YOU DID WHAT?" I yelled at Luffy.

"I didn't!" he protested.

"You're the one that shot that cannon, right?" Johnny questioned.

"No, that was Usopp." Luffy plainly said.

"Oi, Luffy, you traitor!" Usopp exclaimed.

"It's the truth, isn't it?" Leo said, clearly amused.

"Me and my partner were on that rock. He was feeling weak, so we stopped to rest there. And you...you!"

He sobbed. "He doesn't have a long time left!" All the other lights walked over to something. I walked over as well, and that's when I noticed a grey light so faint that I didn't notice it before.

"Idiots!" Nami yelled. "Usopp, there are some limes in the kitchen, go and squeeze the juice out of them into a barrel or something and bring it here!"

Usopp was too afraid of Nami to question her motives, and thus he ran off at top speed.

"Oh, he has scurvy, doesn't he?" I said. "I learned about this in school."

"Scurvy?" Johnny asked.

"It's a type of sickness you get when you don't get enough vitamin C, which is in many fruits and vegetables. Pirates usually don't stock fresh foods like that 'cause they go bad easily, so that's why it was a huge problem in the past."

"Exactly," Nami said. "So after he drinks the lime juice, he should be fine. Of course, he'll have to drink it for a long time, until he's fully re-he shouldn't be healed this fast!"

Sure enough, Johnny's partner's light was a lot brighter than before, and the two grey lights were dancing around.

"Thank you, Orange-aneki and Glasses-aneki!"

"Aneki?" I looked at Leo.

"It's an honorific, I'll explain more later." He replied.

"Anyways, my name is Johnny!"

"And I'm Yosaku! We are bounty hunters, and Zoro used to hunt with us!"

"Good to know," I said sarcastically. "Putting that aside, though, this just proves we really need a proper chef who's studied in the science of food and whatnot."

"You guys need a chef?" Johnny butted in. "I know a place close to here with lots of chefs! 'course, getting one to join you is a whole 'nother matter."

"It's also close to the Grand Line, so lots of dangerous people pass through." Yosaku added.

"That hawk-eyed man you're looking for has been seen there as well," Johnny said very quietly to Zoro, but since my senses were heightened, I heard it as well.

"What is this place?" Nami asked.

"It's a restaurant floating on the sea! It's called the Baratie!" Johnny said, excited. "I've heard that their food is amazing!"

"Okay, it's decided! Let's go to this restaurant and get us a chef!" Luffy announced.

"Hey look, it's a marine ship." Leo called out.

"What?" Usopp panicked. "I'm not ready for this!"

"Man up, you little wimp." Zoro said.

I kept my mouth shut, because I was terrified as well. I looked over at Leo, and then saw the lights behind him. There was one pink one, and a crapton of grey lights.

_I guess that minor characters have grey lights, _I thought. _What a pain._

"Oh, pirates," The pink light said. I was taken aback by the fact that it was a male's voice. I was so sure it was a girl. I'm sorry if I was being stereotypical, but come on!

"Don't worry, I'm on my break," he said. "So I'll let you smalltimers go this time."

"Oh, thank god." I sighed in relief.

"Sink them," I suddenly heard him mutter to his underling.

"They're going to sink us!" I frantically whispered to Zoro.

"What? Oi, Luffy!"

"Hm?" But it was too late. I heard the loud bang the cannon made as it shot the cannonball towards us. I covered my head with my arms and regretted quitting swimming lessons when I was eight.

"Gomu Gomu no Fuusen!"

A few seconds passed, and nothing hit us. Instead, I heard the sound of it hitting something and bounce back...?

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Luffy went all balloon mode, and bounced the cannonball towards the restaurant."

"Balloon mode? Restaurant? Wait, he bounced it to the restaurant? Did it hit?"

"Yep."

"That little...what's balloon mode?"

"He's rubber, right? So balloon mode is when he sucks in a lot of air, thus making his stomach huge."

"That made no sense and a lot of sense at the same time."

Luffy went to apologize, and the rest of us went inside to eat.

"This is way better than you could ever make, Leo." I said, drinking the soup.

"Thank you, my lady!" I heard a voice behind me say. I turned around to see a navy blue light hovering in midair. "I made this soup myself. I'm glad it's to your liking."

"Oh, uh, are you the head chef here?"

"Tch, I wish. I'm the sous-chef, but I'm also filling in as waiter, since most of them ran away again."

"Oh, I see..."

"Would you like seconds? And here is a rose for a lovely flower." He dropped the thorn-less flower in my hand.

"Thank you."

"You're very welcome, my dear. By the way, my name is Sanji, and I'll be serving you today."

Beside me, Leo's irritation seemed to take up the whole room. It seemed to subside when Sanji moved on to Nami.

"I never did like him all that much in the anime..." Leo muttered for me to hear.

"What, is he important?"

"He's our new chef. Who's as annoying as fuck."

"Oh, waiter!" I recognized the voice as Mr. Pink. What the hell was _he _doing here?

Putting down my spoon, I concentrated on listening in to their conversation.

"What is this in my soup?" There was no need for me to concentrate. He said this loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear.

"I'm sorry sir," I heard Sanji say just as loudly. "I'm not an expert in the different bugs of the world. I'm just the assistant chef."

The restaurant's clientele all started laughing. I chuckled a bit. I saw through Mr. Pink's plan the moment he spoke. He was trying to embarrass Sanji for some reason, but it had failed. Girls did this all the time.

"Do you know who I am, you shitty waiter?" Pink said angrily. "I am Ironfist Fullbody, and I can and will beat your sorry ass to next week."

"I'm sorry, you shitty pink-haired brat, but I doubt that. I'll let you try, though."

"Grahh!" And that's when Pink charged towards Sanji. There were a few sounds of hitting and violence, before the two lights stopped moving. Judging by the brightness of Pink's light, I assumed that Sanji had won.

"Sanji! What are you doing! That's our paying customer!" A grey light walked up to the two. "How dare you hurt him!"

"Sir! Captain Fullbody!" another grey light appeared. "I'm sorry! He escaped! We tried to stop him, but he was too strong!"

"What? How's that possible?" Pink exclaimed. "We haven't fed him since we captured him, and that was days ago! How could he have any strength left?"

"I don't know, sir! He ju-"

There was a bang, the sound of a gun. The grey light slowly dimmed until it no longer existed. My eyes widened. _Did someone just kill him?_

A dark grey light appeared behind where Fullbody's underling (again, assuming) had fallen. I heard the sound of his footsteps echo throughout the silent room.

"This is a restaurant, right?" Dark Grey said. "Give me some food!"

The grey light that went over to Sanji and Pink now came over to Dark Grey.

"Welcome to the Baratie, you squid-faced bastard. Do you have any money?" he said boldly.

"Do you accept lead?"

"If you don't have money, then YOU'RE NOT OUR CUSTOMER!"

There was a loud thunk, and the sound of wood breaking in two.

"Tch, he's going to pay for that table." I heard someone mutter.

Meanwhile, everyone where cheering and whooping in joy.

"Yeah Patty!"

"He just defeated one of Don Krieg's men!"

"You know Don Krieg is one of the deadliest pirates in the East Blue?"

"Sorry for the disruption, everyone! You may go back to enjoying your meals while I throw out some trash." Patty said cheerfully.

Soon enough, the restaurant retained its previous easy-going air.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sanji leave the same way Patty did to 'take out the trash'.

"I'll be right back," I told Leo. "Bathroom." He was too busy eating to notice.

I took my bow out and waved it in front of me like I've seen blind people do with a cane. Since I didn't have a cane, this would have to do. Slowly, but surely, I made my way towards Sanji and...Dark?

"Here, eat this," I heard Sanji say. After feeling the wall, I found the door and went outside on to a deck of sorts. To my right were Sanji and Dark, whose light had started dimming.

"I don't take charity." Dark stubbornly said.

"It isn't charity if you owe me, right? Now eat, you must be starving."

There was a moment of silence, and then I heard Dark grab the plate of whatever it was and begin to eat ravenously. His light regained its brightness, and then he started crying.

"This...is so...delicious..." he sobbed.

"I know, right? I made it myself," Sanji said, I could hear the smile in his voice.

"You're really nice," I said. "I don't know many people who would do something like this."

I sat down beside Sanji. "You're exaggerating, m'lady. I'm just doing what any gentleman would do."

"Then that means there aren't many gentlemen in the world. My name is Cecilia, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Cecilia. Ah, my heart beats wildly at the sound of your beautiful name~!"

_That was just a little creepy._

That's when I assumed that Dark finished his food. "Thank you so much, I don't know how I can express my gratitude, thank you, thank you..."

_I guess even a deadly pirate succumbs to hunger, _I thought.

"Take our shopping boat," Sanji said. "And get out of here."

"Really? Oh, thank you so much!"

A few minutes later, Dark was still crying, but he was now sailing away. "I'll never forget you! My name is Gin!"

"Have a safe trip!" Sanji called. And then I guessed he turned to me. "Would you like me to escort you back to your table?"

"I guess it's kinda obvious that I'm blind, huh?" I said, half-laughing. "Sure, thanks."

"No problem, Miss Cecilia." He took my hand, and then kissed it. I felt my face heat up hotter than the surface of the sun.

But hey, cut me some slack. Being a teenage girl who used to live on Earth, this kind of stuff never happens.

Once I sat back down at my table, Leo had been the only one who had noticed I was gone.

"Where'd you go?" he asked suspiciously.

"Washroom," I simply answered, and picked up my soupspoon. The food was a bit cold now, but delicious nonetheless. After a few minutes, I saw Luffy's light approach us.

"Hey, Luffy," I said.

"I have to work here for a year." He said bluntly.

Usopp did a spit-take. "What?"

"The old geezer who owns this place says I either have to work for a year or leave my leg here."

"Cut off your leg right now!" Usopp demanded. I choked on my food, and Leo patted my back.

"What the hell are you saying, man?" Luffy was as shocked as I was.

"I've finally got the guts to come out to sea, and I'm not going to waste any time!"

"You little...!" But before they could fight it out, there was the sound of a door slamming open, and the restaurant almost immediately became silent. There was a new pinkish-purple light that was different than Pink's.

"My name is Don Krieg." PurplePink said slowly. "I hear you have good food here..."

Shit.

Finally done! I started typing this chap first thing this morning, and now I'm done!

The poll is still open for who you think I should pair up with Cecilia. I'm surprised no one voted for the 'no one' option. I guess you guys are suckers for romance.

Anyways, currently, Sanji and Zoro are tied at first place. So vote, people, vote!

Hope you enjoyed this long-awaited chapter! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, faved, alerted, voted, read, and liked!

*hands out virtual cookies*

-NomSujet


	5. A Warning and a Threat

"…the fuck…?" I heard Leo mutter.

Meanwhile, the restaurant reverted back to the silence it was in before. Beside Don Krieg, I saw a black light walk up. A black light…like the one for Ravenia and Nez.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure they have good food." Black said. It was a woman's voice. "Critics gave them five out of five stars."

"Oh really, now." Don said, menace dripping from his words. "You heard the lady. Get me food for 100 people. Or there will be consequences."

"This isn't what's supposed to happen…" Leo said under his breath. "Who the hell is she…?"

Hearing that, I was officially worried. If Leo didn't know what was going to happen, then we could…

As if he could read my mind, Leo grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sanji slowly walk away from the other lights.

"Oi, Sanji, where the fuck to you think _you're _going?" Patty yelled.

"…Isn't it obvious?" Sanji replied. "I'm off to make food for 100 people."

"Oh no you don't!" Patty yelled. The other cooks joined in. "Yeah!" "Are you out of your mind?" "You tell 'im, Patty!"

"I'm a cook." Sanji said calmly. "My job is to feed people."

"Listen to the blondie." Black said. "Let him do what he wants. Otherwise…" Suddenly, the restaurant's clientele gasped unanimously. I assumed Black just revealed her weapon.

"What the hell…how are you doing that?" A new voice said.

"Carne!" Patty exclaimed. "It's about time!"

"Stop yer com-" Carne was interrupted by a grunt of pain the moment I saw a flash of white light hit his grey light. "Oof!" Another gasp from the people around us. There was a moment of silence. Which, of course, Luffy broke.

"Hey, who do you think you are, lady? You can't just go around and hurt people!" He demanded.

_Says the one who accidentally rebounded a cannon ball into a restaurant. _

It was then that Sanji came back. "Here's your food." He said, standing in front of Don. "Now get the hell out of this restaurant."

"Much…appreciated…" Don said slowly. Then, before I knew it, Sanji had crashed into the back wall.

"San-!" my mouth was immediately covered by Leo's hand. I glared at him, and then tried to resist the urge to rush over to Sanji and check if he was okay. Luckily, the urge wasn't as big, due to the fact I was about to wet myself from fear.

Not literally, of course.

"Now listen closely, all of you." Don said menacingly. "I'm going to take this food to my crew. And when I come back, I'll be taking over this dump as my new boat, got it? I'll give you a chance to leave, since I'm feeling so generous." And with that, he left, the woman following close behind. But before the woman left, she stopped, and said,

"I know you're in this restaurant somewhere, Daring. Don't worry, I'll find you soon enough. It's what I'm here for, after all…" Then she finally left.

A few seconds later, the restaurant burst into chaos, with people scrambling to leave, and cooks trying futile attempts at making them pay before they left. I, on the other hand, rushed over to Sanji. Well, if your definition of rushed was to slowly make your way through the hellish mob of grey lights that merged together, trying to get to the blue one. I got there eventually.

"Are you okay, Sanji?" I asked him, hoping he wasn't unconscious.

He groaned, and I felt him sit up. "Yeah, don't worry about me, sweet flower."

_Sweet flower…?_

"What are you going to do?"

"Fight the shitty Krieg, of course."

"Fight? He just knocked you into a wall!"

"Only because I let him." His tone suddenly changed. "I didn't want him causing any more trouble for you, lovely angel!"

_Lovely…angel…? What the hell was wrong with this man?_

Giving myself a poker face, I tried to talk him out of it. "You'll be killed, though."

"Oh, beautiful Cecilia, my heart is pounding with joy that you would worry for me. But do not fret, your Prince will surely defeat the villain, and we shall live happily ever af-"

He was interrupted by Leo, who had bonked him on the head. "Pervert. Get away from my sister." He grabbed me by the arm, pulled me away.

"I don't know if I should thank you or hit you." I said in a low tone.

"Thank me." He immediately replied. I kicked him. "Anyways, we should hide somewhere until this all blows over."

"That woman wasn't part of the plot, was she?"

"Nope. And she said she was looking for Daring…so that means one of us. Plus, Don Krieg was supposed to arrive the day after tomorrow, so that messes up the timeline…"

"Wait, you remember when he was supposed to arrive?"

"Of course. I've read the One Piece wiki about a million times. How could I not?"

_Nerd. _"Where do you think we should hide?"

"Either on the Merry or in here. The problem is…" he trailed off. "You see Nami anywhere?"

I looked through the grey lights. I saw Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji's…but there was no orange light floating around anywhere. "Nope."

"Damn, that means she's already left. On the Merry."

"So the back of the restaurant it is, then?"

"Looks like it." Leo led me to some kind of cramped storage room. "This place should do fine."

He paused. I tensed up; feeling like something was about to happen. "What is it?"

Leo said this next part with unmistakable glee. "Time to teach you more about One Piece and its awesomeness!"

I groaned. "Leo, not _now._"

"Yes, _now. _Do you _want _to be totally unprepared and accidentally mess the plot more than it already has been?"

"Frankly, I don't even care. This world…might not even be real. Maybe we've just been transported into one of your damn comic books or something, not a completely different universe."

"Maybe. But you know what? It's as fun as hell."

"…Hell's not _supposed _to be fun."

"It's a figure of speech. And don't you wonder if there are other worlds out there? Maybe one day, we'll go exploring through different universes! Just like Tsubasa! I call being Fai. You can be Kurogane."

"The fuck are you talking about?"

Leo just laughed. I shook my head and reminded myself to take him to a psychiatrist once all of this craziness was over.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Amy, aren't you worried? At all?" Evangeline poked her friend in the arm. "I mean, Cecilia hasn't been at school all week, and she hasn't replied to any of my texts."<p>

Amy looked up from her book. "Well, she might've just gone on a vacation with Leo or something. Somewhere where there's no wifi at all or something."

"But wouldn't she tell us first?"

"You know who Leo is. Her birthday _is _coming up soon. Maybe Leo planned another one of his…surprises." The two girls shuddered. Suddenly, the intercom on the wall crackled to life.

"Amy Liviere and Evangeline Johnson please report to the principal's office."

Amy glared at Evangeline. "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing! Unless, of course, they found out about that…" Amy sighed.

"Let's go." She stood up from the lunch table. Evangeline followed suit, and the two of them walked to the office, where they were quickly ushered into the principal's office.

"Please sit." Principal Sahl gestured to two chairs across the table from him. The girls obliged, and waited for the man to continue. "You two are friends with Miss Cynthia Daring, correct?"

"Do you mean Cecilia, Mr. Sahl?" Amy said. The Principal was notorious for never remembering anyone's name.

"Oh, yes. Thank you, Amelia. Anyways, it has been brought to my attention that she hasn't attended school for a week now. Do either of you know of any plans she may have had?" He looked back and forth between the two girls.

"No, not at all." Evangeline said.

"And Cecilia is definitely not one to skip school…" Principal Sahl muttered. "Well, has she notified you two of anything? A sick relative perhaps?" They shook their heads. "Alright, then. I suppose that'll be all. You may leave."

As they left the office, the two friends looked at each other.

"If she didn't even call the school…" Evangeline trailed off.

"Okay, it's official, we're visiting her house after school." Amy replied.

* * *

><p>And that's exactly what they did. To their surprise, the front door was unlocked. Amy and Evangeline gave each other worried looks, then proceeded inside.<p>

"Cecilia? Leo? Anyone home?" Amy called out. There was no answer. The two girls searched throughout the house until reaching Cecilia's room.

"Well here's her backpack…" Evangeline picked the said item off of the ground.

"And all her stuff is still here." Amy said. "You don't think she was, you know, kidnapped or something?"

"An interesting theory." A male voice replied. They spun around. Standing in front of them was a tall man wearing a scarf.

"W-who are you?" Amy stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"None of your concern. Now, I suggest you two forget about Ms. Daring completely. It would be for the best." The man said calmly.

"As if! You expect us to just forget about our friend?" Amy bravely took a step forward. To her surprise, the man grabbed her head.

"AMY!" Evangeline yelled in terror. Amy's eyes glazed over, as if in a trance. Next the man reached for her chest. To Evangeline's surprise and disgust, his hand plunged into Amy's body. And just as quickly as it happened, he pulled his hand out, now holding a picture of Amy and her friends. Letting go of Amy's head, she fell to the ground with a thump.

"AMY!" Evangeline screamed again. She ran over to Amy's body, and then looked up at the man fearfully. His face was emotionless, and he lifted his hand up.

"Your turn."

* * *

><p>"Your turn." Leo said.<p>

"Okay, fine." I started rattling off everything I now knew about One Piece.

"It's Shichibukai, not Shikabuka." My brother corrected.

"Does it matter? Can't I just call them the Seven Warlords? I'm not Japanese, I can't pronounce these words, dammit!"

"I can."

"You're _you._ Anyways, do you think the battle's over yet?" I asked. We both fell silent, and listened for the sounds of warfare.

"Nope." Leo said. I sighed, and rubbed my temples.

"How long are we going to be here!" I complained. Suddenly, I heard the door creak in front of us. We simultaneously stiffened up, and I felt Leo reach for his gun. I squeezed my eyes shut. _Please be a friend, not a foe, please be a friend, not a foe…_

Apparently, some god up there in the sky hates my guts.

"Oh? Look what we have here?" the black light said.

"You." Leo stated with recognition.

"I've been looking for you, Ms. Daring." The woman said.

_Fuck._

"Don't worry, I'm just here to issue a warning." The light neared me. Suddenly, I felt hands coil around my throat.

"I'LL SHOOT!" Leo yelled beside me.

"Shut up." The person said, and then I saw a streak of white light shoot out from her and hit Leo.

"Now. You." Her hands tightened. "Do you remember Ravenia? Well, she just so happens to be my best friend. And you've just made the biggest mistake of your fucking life."

Off to my right, I heard Leo groan. Meanwhile, my mind worked furiously. _Ravenia? Don't tell me _another _person is on my case about making her love Zoro!_

"Look, that was-ugh!-a mistake…" I managed to say. "I've already-urk!-promised Nez I would do something about it!" Thankfully, she let go of my neck.

"Fine, then. And what exactly are you planning to do?"

"Uh, get the two of them together in one room and then stab Ravenia with Cupid's Arrow…?"

"That won't work." The woman replied immediately.

"What? How do you know?"

"Those arrows belonged to my mother. The love arrow only works once on one person."

I swore. _Now what?_

"Ah, well. Your problem now. Truthfully, it doesn't even matter to me if you get them back together or not. I'm doing you a favour, telling you all this information." I could hear the smile in her voice. "Good luck, I guess." And with that, she left.

I let go of a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "You okay, Leo? What did she do to you?"

"She created this ball of water in her hand, and then she threw it at me. Hit me in the stomach…"

"…A ball of water?"

"Don't ask me, she's not in One Piece, so I know nothing about her. Now what was that about?"

* * *

><p>After explaining everything to Leo, the door in front of us slammed open, and a red light appeared in front of us.<p>

"There you guys are!" Luffy said excitedly. "Come on, we're about to set sail after Nami!"

I stood up and stretched my legs. "Ok, let's go." And then I walked into the door.

Yeah, I know. Real smooth.

Once all of the tearful goodbyes were made, we headed off on one of the Baratie's boats.

"So, Luffy, you kicked his ass?" Leo asked.

"Naturally!" Luffy laughed, and the two idio- I mean, boys, high-fived each other.

_Let's see here…Nami takes off with the Merry, then we follow her to some place called Kokoyasi, and then Luffy kicks a merman's butt…? Something like that._

"Oh sweet Cecilia-chan~! What would you like for lunch?" Sanji asked.

I resisted the urge to rub my temples to fight off the incoming headache. "Oh, anything's fine, Sanji…kun." Leo had also taught me about honorifics during our stay at the back of the restaurant, and I decided to put them to use.

"I will make a delicious lunch for my angel~! And then you shitheads get the leftovers."

"Hey!" Yosaku complained. Luffy just laughed.

"Whatever, it'll taste good anyway!" he said.

_Well isn't someone Mr. Glass-half-full?_ I thought. I closed my eyes, leaned back, and awaited lunch.

* * *

><p>AN: How long has it been? Two months? *swears inside head* Sorry I haven't updated in so long. On a side note, the Olympics began today! Hetalia fans, rejoice! And BTW, Zoro's winning in the poll! Come on, Sanji fangirls, vote!

Please review if you have time!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, and added to their alerts last time! Much appreciated!

-NomSujet


	6. The Tyrant is Challenged

Oh my gooooood, Sanji's cooking was good. Ahem, moving on.

Apparently, a sea monster attacked us during lunch, but I was too busy making sure not to spill food down my front to only barely acknowledge the sounds of shock (Yosaku) and battle (Luffy and Sanji).

Only after I noticed we were going faster did I asked Leo about it. "Oh yeah, Luffy and what's-his-face just defeated a seaking and tied him to the ship. Now we're being pulled by it." I just gave him an incredulous look, and then rubbed my temples, fending off my upcoming headache.

"My brother has gone off the deep end…" I muttered conspiratorially.

After lunch was finished and the dishes put away, I lounged around outside with the others. According to Yosaku, it would only take another hour or so to get to Cocoyashi (so _that _was the name of the island!), and that Nami and the others were most likely already there.

The others were talking about Nami and trying to figure out why she left while I fended off sleep. It seemed that I was doing a lot of that lately, and I also certainly did not want to talk to Derek or Nez again. Baugh, damn Lacriyons.

However, after hearing the others start playing I Spy, of all games, I gave up, and succumbed to sleep.

* * *

><p>"Seriously, who plays I Spy in front of a blind person who's bored out of her mind? Oh yeah, my older brother, the one who taught the others how to play." I said under my breath. I took a look at my surroundings. This time, I was in my home. Humming a song, I walked into my room.<p>

And stopped mid-step.

On the floor of my bedroom were my two friends. "Oh my god, Amy! Evangeline! Are you okay?" I shook their shoulders desperately, but neither of them woke up. I stood up slowly. "It's okay, Cecilia," I said to myself. "It's just a dream, it's just a dream." And that's when I noticed my digital clock. It read October 12, 2011. The date it would be if I wasn't transported to another world.

"…." My mind worked furiously, trying to figure out if I was actually in the real world. "It can't be this easy, can it? Am I really…that lucky? Maybe that whole thing was a dream…a dream within a dream? Augh!" _Curse time and space paradoxes, this made no sense!_

I made a mad dash towards the front door. Grabbing the doorknob, I had planned to throw it open, only to find that it wouldn't budge. "It can't be locked from the outside! That defeats the whole purpose of a locked door!" I slowly sank to the floor, taking deep breaths, trying to calm myself down. My eyes locked onto the phone, and I grabbed it and tried to call nine-one-one. 'No Signal,' the automated voice informed me.

"NO SIGNAL?! How is that even possible, I'm IN. MY. HOUSE!" Slamming the phone down, I made my way back to my room. I tried looking out the window, but there was thick fog blocking out everything. Turning my head to my two unconscious friends, I bent down and picked up Amy by the arms. Eventually, I got her onto my bed. I did the same with Evangeline.

It was way to creepy to see the two of them on the floor, like…dead bodies. _They're just sleeping, C, nothing to worry about, _I lied to myself. _In any case, this is waaay too damn real to be just a dream. Must be those Lacriyons messing with my head again. _

I picked up my backpack (which was technically a side bag I had bought for high school to look 'cooler') from the floor and emptied it. I grabbed some clothing from my closet, and stuffed them inside. I also grabbed some personal things, such as my favourite hair tie that Amy had given to me for my sixteenth birthday, and my old archery gloves and other equipment I still kept in my room.

I also grabbed a calendar to keep myself sane in the 'One Piece' world, as my brother had dubbed it. Plus, my birthday was coming up, and I certainly didn't want to miss that. I also grabbed my wallet, just in case. I might be able to pass the money off as some rare foreign currency or something. Well, I still needed somewhere to keep beli notes and whatnot, so the small purple bag joined the other things inside my backpack.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a certain book on my bookshelf. 'How to Read Braille', the title said. I had bought it with my allowance when I was young, thinking 'Braille' was some sort of secret code or language. I was incredibly disappointed when I found out it was just an 'alphabet' for the blind. _Oh, the irony, _I thought, letting out a laugh. I tossed the book into my bag as well.

I also attempted to go into my brother's room to get him some clothes as well, but the door was locked.

Returning to my bedroom, I grabbed a pen and paper and began to write.

'To Whom it May Concern, my brother and I have been transported to an alternate dimension following the plotline and rules of a manga called 'One Piece'. I have somehow returned to this world through a dream of mine in the other world. Please, if you read this, do NOT dismiss me as a crazy teenager. If I had proof on me, I would gladly leave it here for you to see, but I don't. I do not know when I'll make it back, if I even get back at all. Sorry, Evangeline, for making you take the blame for that one thing I did (you swore not to speak of it, remember?) and Amy, I'm sorry for accidentally letting my brother get his hands on your favourite book when you lent it to me. May it rest in pieces. Anyways, I suppose this is goodbye.

_Sincerely, _

_Cecilia Daring.'_

Sparing one more glance at my friends, I closed my eyes, and waited for myself to wake up…or fall back asleep, I guess.

* * *

><p>The first thing I did when I awoke was feel for my backpack. Sure enough, I felt the weight of it on my lap. Reaching a hand inside, I also confirmed the contents were still there. The others either didn't notice or didn't care enough to ask about my backpack, for which I was grateful. I zipped it closed, and after some manoeuvring, the quiver for my arrows and my bag on opposite shoulders, with the straps crossing in an 'X'. I had tugged and pulled my arm guard and chest guard on, all too aware of the upcoming battle Leo had told me about. I also donned my gloves, which I preferred over finger tabs.<p>

"Cocoyashi is ahead!" I heard Leo call, his pronunciation of said island perfect. "Brace yourselves!"

My brother's warning came just in time, because the whole ship suddenly shook from an impact. Out of instinct I grabbed the closest thing to me, which happened to be the edge of the ship. Feeling the wind practically ripping my hair out and the weightlessness, I could pretty much guess what had happened.

"Woo! It's like we're flying!" I heard Luffy call out enthusiastically.

"THAT'S BECAUSE WE ARE!" Someone called back.

"Hey, look! It's Zoro! HI ZORO!" Luffy shouted.

"GET OUTTA THE WAY, IDIOT!" Sanji/Yosaku yelled. I gripped the edge tighter, readying myself for the upcoming crash.

* * *

><p>After many apologies to Zoro, (I still couldn't believe he was still alive after being literally ploughed over by a flying ship) the swordsman started telling us about what had happened to him. Just then, Johnny ran up to us.<p>

"Usopp-aniki is…is…he's dead!" he sobbed. "Nami-aneki killed him! I saw it with my own two eyes!"

There was a tense silence. I recalled what Leo told me, and bit my lip to prevent myself from the spilling the truth. Luffy stubbornly denied it (_Yes! He's not completely brain-dead! _I cheered to myself), and that's when the 'witch' herself came up to us.

"Nami-san…" Sanji trailed off.

"I'm sorry, _Captain,_" Nami said, sarcasm dripping off the word 'captain'. "But I was never your navigator. I was just using you for money, and I guess it worked, so I'll thank you for that. Now, why don't you get off this island, and find yourself another navigator?"

After much arguing, yelling, and questioning from everyone, our 'Captain' made his decision.

"Now," Luffy said softly. "I'm going to sleep." And with a _thump_, he fell to the ground and started lightly snoring.

"Fine! Do whatever you want! Get killed for all I care!" Nami stomped off, completely PO'd.

After some _more _talking, Johnny and Yosaku left us. I stared, as their lights slowly grew smaller until they couldn't be seen.

I slowly made my way to a tree on the side of the road, and sat down, leaning against it. Grabbing all of the arrows out of my quiver, I placed them into my lap.

_Well here's Cupid's Arrow, _I thought, taking the said arrow and putting it down onto the ground next to me. I then picked out an arrow from the pile. Slowly feeling the strangely shaped fletching, I determined it was the shape of a lightning bolt. "An electric shock?" I muttered to myself.

And that's when Usopp decided to make his appearance. Unfortunately for him, he came at just the wrong time. "That's gotta hurt," Leo winced, after he explained what had happened to me.

"You know, Zoro and Sanji are kind of like an old married couple who argue with each other all time." I mused.

"Oh please, don't tell me you're into yaoi." My brother whispered, deathly afraid.

I glared at him. "First of all, I can like whatever I want, and second of all, I don't even know what yaoi is, dumbass."

After that, Nami's sister showed up as well. She started telling us about Nami's past, which I already knew, so I went back to concentrating on my arrows.

* * *

><p><em>Thor's Arrow, Gemini Arrow, Sagittarius Arrow, and Cupid's Arrow, <em>I thought. _Well, the Thor's Arrow might be useful, since water conducts electricity and whatnot, and we __are __facing fishmen after all. _

While I congratulated myself on my naming skills (ok, not really), Nojiko had finished her story (Which was quite sad, actually. Made me want to kick Arlong between the legs. That is, if I was insane enough to do so).

I placed the arrows I had named into my second quiver, which was strapped to my waist. It was my old one from archery club, and I had debated whether or not to bring it with me. I'm glad I did; I really wouldn't have time to fumble around, looking for a certain arrow.

Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Leo, and I all got up and walked towards the town, where Luffy had gone.

"You ready?" Leo whispered. "You could just stay here, you know." I laughed a bit.

"And miss all the action? No way." I smiled mischievously. "Plus, I've got a trump card up my sleeve. How do you think the fishmen would react to some lightning?"

"Well, just play it safe, alright?" he said.

"Obviously," I replied. "I, for one, value my life."

Once we were in town, we sat around, waiting for Luffy to arrive.

"Let's go." Luffy said in a serious tone.

"Roger," the others said in unison while I just nodded my head in agreement. And then we began the walk to Arlong Park.

* * *

><p>Luffy started off great; he went ahead, broke the door with his bare hands, and marched in like he owned the place. When we caught up, I heard Luffy talking.<p>

"You're going to pay for making _my _navigator cry." Luffy declared, his threat hanging in the air. For a moment, all the other fishmen hesitated, probably wondering what to do. I gripped my bow tighter. They started charging toward us, but Sanji swiftly dealt with them and Leo shot a few for good measure.

"As if Arlong would fight the likes of you!" a fishman exclaimed. "Come out! Sea beast!"

A sound like a waterfall and drops of water were the only indications I needed. Off to our right emerged a giant grey light; bigger than any of the other fishmen's.

"Hey, it's the monster we beat up to get here." Leo said. In my head, I added on a smug-sounding, 'but I already knew that.'

Said monster started swimming away out of fear, which was probably what I'd do if I were face to face to the jerks who defeated me and used me as a transportation device. But of course, Arlong had to butt in and coax (threaten) the sea monster into fighting.

_Here's my cue! _I thought. _Now or never, Cecilia! _With a well-practiced motion, I withdrew the Thor's Arrow, notched it, and aimed.

"Thor's Arrow!" I shouted out, and fired. Seeing the same streak of white light that was my arrow hit the giant grey light, I smiled. There was a sizzling and cracking noise, and I started smelling smoke.

_YES! IT ACTUALLY WORKED! HA HA HA! _I thought ecstatically. I then resisted the urge to jump up and down out of pure glee. That… probably would have looked absolutely ridiculous.

"You do realize you just screwed the plot sideways, right?" Leo whispered.

"Leo. We're screwing with the plot just by being here. It doesn't really matter how we do it as long as the end result's the same, doesn't it?" At this, he laughed, and rubbed my head affectionately (messing up my hair in the process).

"That's my sis! I knew you had bit of crazy in you. You got it from me, by the way."

Sticking my tongue out at him, I went back to watching Luffy. "Thanks, Cecil." He said. I heard the sound of rubber stretching, and a pat as he grabbed onto…the sea monster? Suddenly, Leo grabbed my left shoulder and quickly backed us up a good dozen steps.

"Gomu Gomu no Pinwheel!" I felt a wave of air rush over me, followed by the sound of bodies slamming.

Don't tell me he's…

…

_Ugh, he is. Well, at least that takes care of most of them._

"Hey, what's going on out there?" And, suddenly, out of nowhere, came a black light.

Fuuuuuuuuuu-

"Oh hello, Wy-kun." Arlong drawled. "Care to join the fight?"

"My god, they're fucking _everywhere._" I muttered. "These damn Lacriyons, I swear, they probably exist to stalk me."

"I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT ANY SMALL FRY!" Luffy declared. "I CAME TO FIGHT YOU, ARLONG!"

Beside Arlong stood three grey lights and the black light. _Strange how the numbers always work out, _I thought. _But that's manga logic for you._

"Looks like we'll have to do some fighting…" Leo said under his breath. "And here I was hoping to just shoot some random subordinates like last time."

I smirked. "You can't have what you always want, Leo."

All of a sudden, Leo grabbed my arm again and pulled me to the side. "TAKO-HACHI BLACK!" One of the remaining fishmen shouted.

"Octopus ink!" Sanji shouted.

"You idiot, why didn't you dodge that!?" Zoro scolded.

"Er…I'm kinda stuck…" Luffy said sheepishly. I looked over at Luffy incredulously.

"Quiz time!" Leo whispered cheerfully. "Why didn't Luffy dodge the ink?"

"…Because he was an idiot?" I answered.

"No, because he stuck his feet into the ground to do the pinwheel move." Leo replied. "You need to review this stuff! It's important!"

"Like hell it is," I muttered.

"TAKO-HACHI BLACK ON THE ROCK!" The ground shook from the fishman slamming something down. But before I could worry about that, I felt someone pull me into a headlock.

"Cecilia!" my brother called.

Thinking quickly, I grabbed a random arrow and stabbed the guy with it. He let go, and I stumbled forward and turned around. Just as I suspected, it was the Lacriyon called Wy.

"YOU SHITTY BASTARD, DO NOT TOUCH CECILIA-CHAN!" Sanji raged from afar.

Putting the arrow back into my quiver without checking what it was, I took out Thor's Arrow and notched it. "Why… are all you fucking Lacriyons after me?" I demanded. "I don't think I've ever done anything to any of you, so why?"

"Orders," Wy said in a tiny voice.

"From who?" Leo asked.

"Her," Wy whispered, and then lunged forward.

* * *

><p>Here it is! Chapter 6! A big thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, and added this to their alerts!<p>

Keep voting, people, as to who you want me to pair Cecilia up with!

Feel free to suggest ideas, or anything else you want to see in this story.

~NomSujet

P.S. Next chapter will be the end of the Arlong arc!

EDIT: I forgot to mention this, but from now on, I'm only going by the votes people send to the poll on my profile page. So, sorry, to everyone who just reviewed and said who they wanted. It's a lot less confusing for me, so I hope you understand. Thank you!


	7. Battle Fails and Birthday Crabs

Leo quickly pulled me towards him, effectively dodging the attack. And that was the exact moment I realize exactly how useless I was, and not jus amongst people like Luffy.

The whole blindness thing was going to become a big thorn in everybody's side, not just mine. I bit down on my bottom lip. _Okay, think, Usopp is kinda useless, and he still lives. Plus, he's also a long-range fighter like I am!_

_Yeah, well, Usopp can see, dumbass._

"And once again, Cecilia's overconfidence ends up biting her in the ass," I muttered. Leo fired some shots while trying to protect me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if he was going to run out of bullets soon, but then I stopped, afraid that I was going to, you know, _jinx _it or something.

My eyes tried to follow Wy's movements, but I couldn't catch up. I notched Thor's Arrow anyway, praying that luck was on my side today.

Apparently it was, (for once) and Leo connected one of his shots. Wy slowed down considerably, and I raised my weapon. Figuratively crossing my fingers, I took aim and let go of the arrow.

Unfortunately, it missed, but it did hit one of the insignificant grey lights in the background. Groping for another arrow, I grabbed the Sagittarius one and notched it. _Come on, mystical zodiac sign arrow! Be useful! _Letting go once again, I saw Wy nimbly jump out of the way. I felt slightly disappointed, and went to grab yet another arrow.

And then shit hit the fan.

The Sagittarius arrow light fucking _curved, _and went after Wy.

I swear, my jaw fell to the floor. Absent-mindedly, I felt the Thor's Arrow finally reappear in my hand. Leo and I just stood there like idiots while we (and the rest of the greys) watched the Lacriyon and the arrow in a game of Cat and Mouse. Wy even dived into the water in desperation, but the arrow just _hovered _in the air, as if it were waiting for Wy to resurface.

I told you, shit hit the fan. And this was some serious shit.

"DEVIL FRUIT!" some fishman yelled, but I didn't even register it. My eyes were glued to the arrow and the logic side of my brain started to work overtime. Major overtime.

Luckily, Leo seemed to have snapped out of it faster than I did, and started shooting at the few fishmen who decided to come at us. Wy finally came up, and began to swim rapidly in order to get away from the arrow.

_Derek, what the hell have you entrusted in the hands of a teenage girl?!_

Unfortunately for Wy, he couldn't run forever, and he was struck with the arrow. I notched Thor again, ready to deal a finishing blow.

But, of course, another Lacriyon entered the scene. I had just released the arrow when a sudden powerful gust of wind blew in my direction, actually sending it back. I ducked frantically, and only got a glimpse of the second black light. "Business is done, Arlong, my time is up!" Wy shouted.

When I looked up, they were both gone. I had no time to think about why, however, as the nameless fishmen started to attack us.

And this apparently made Arlong very unhappy. "Hey! You can't just steal my magician!" he shouted. "I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!"

But then Luffy punched him, so that was all good.

Speaking of Luffy…

"Leo, does he win with his feet in the ground?" I asked, shooting at a fishman.

"Er, no," he replied. "I guess Arlong didn't throw him in the water because it's still filled with electricity from your attack. Even though Luffy is the only one immune to electricity considering he's rubber, thus none of us would be able to save him." Leo muttered the last sentence.

"Well, whatever, I'm not questioning logic anymore. Especially not antagonist logic. So now what?"

"Hopefully Sanji or Zoro will finish their fights soon and break him out."

However, the more I watched Luffy's fight, the more I realized that he was losing. Sanji and Zoro were nowhere to be found in my peripheral vision, and I decided to take my own course of action. _Okay, what can break rock? _I asked myself. _Extreme heat and cold, right? Okay, okay, okay, now what?!_

The onslaught of fishmen kept coming, but it was a small number that my brother could handle. _Time to start experimenting…_

I grabbed a random arrow, and shot it. The grey light faded out of existence, but that didn't necessarily tell me anything about the arrow. I notched another one. When the streak of white connected with the grey, it was not pretty.

And I'm saying that while I'm blind.

An audible _boom _was heard, and I was splattered with…liquid. A squishy…chunk of something hit my arm. I shuddered.

"Did that do what I think it did?" I whispered fearfully.

"Yeeep," Leo answered, dragging out the word. The arrow returned, and I felt its fletching. It was just a simple zigzag pattern.

"Explosion Arrow," I muttered. I looked up at the fight between Luffy and Arlong. Arlong continued to pummel Luffy over and over, while all the Strawhat boy could do was stand there and take it. Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp were still nowhere nearby, so I took matters into my own hands.

_Alright, I can not shoot it. I might hit Luffy, considering I can only see a little ball of light, not his entire body. Aw shit…_

"Leeeeoooo," I whispered. "I have a plan. Take my arrow and give me your gun!"

Thankfully, my usually idiotic brother understood immediately. Shoving the gun into my hand, he grabbed the Explosion Arrow and ran towards Luffy. Meanwhile, I took shots at the fishmen. I wasn't very good at it at first, since I wasn't expecting much recoil. Unfortunately, the first time I pulled the trigger, I nearly fell over from the force.

Leo made his way through the fishmen somewhat slowly, having to punch a few for good measure. With my bow in my left hand and the gun in my right, I also made my way forward.

Which was an incredibly stupid idea.

I was doing fine for about five seconds, but then I tripped and fell. Panicking, I scrambled to get back up again, but it was too late. A fishman reached me and promptly punched me in the stomach, and I could feel the impact even through my chest guard.

I hacked up something, and couldn't breathe. I've never even been slapped before, let alone punched! Why was I so foolish to think I could be of any help whatsoever in a major battle like this?

Adding injury to injury (and yes, I do know how the original saying goes. I'm merely warping it to fit my circumstances), it seemed Leo was successful, and a chunk of flying rock hit me squarely on the forehead.

The next few seconds were the most painful ones of my life. My sunglasses were gone, probably broken. My bow had disappeared as well. I tried to grab some arrows to stab my attackers with them, but unfortunately, it didn't work.

Faintly, I could hear Leo yelling in the background, explosions, and the smell of fried fish. _So this is where I die, _I thought morbidly. _How pathetic. What are they going to put on my gravestone? Here lies Cecilia, who got pummeled to death by fishmen, because she was too stupid to realize that a blind person would not help in a battle between pirates._

Then came the sound of something slamming onto flesh. The attack on me slowed, until it stopped completely. I cautiously cracked open my left eye.

"Are you okay, Cecilia-chan?" Sanji asked me. I opened my mouth to reply, but then I promptly rolled over on my side and vomited. _How attractive, _a part of my brain criticized. I willed myself to shut up, and then stopped puking once all I was coughing up was acid.

"Thank you," I managed to say. "And sorry."

"Aw, it's okay!" Sanji went from gentleman to fanboy. "I'm glad you're alright!"

"Where're the others?"

"All the fights are finished except for Luffy's," he replied. I swept my eyes over the battlefield. Once all coloured lights were accounted for, I directed my gaze to Luffy. Meanwhile, Leo pulled me into a tight hug from behind, almost cutting off my air supply. However, instead of elbowing him in the gut like I would usually do, I let him, and I may have leaned into the hug a little.

Finally, Arlong plummeted to the ground, and Luffy stood victorious.

I think I may have cheered louder than I've ever cheered before.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

I sat on the grass, listening to Usopp ramble about his fight with a powerful fishmen. Music was playing in the background, and there was plenty of food, most of which were made by Sanji.

I gulped down my water greedily, trying to get the bitter taste of acid and blood out of my mouth. _The whole first encounter thing with Ravenia was definitely not my first battle, _I mused. _This was. _For a moment while I was being (for lack of a better term) pwned, I think I saw my life flash before my eyes.

And in hindsight, it was indeed kind of pathetic.

I had never actually done anything worth thinking about, other than striving to get straight A's and whatever.

"I gonna need to do some serious thinking," I muttered, chuckling a little. Sanji walked up to me and handed me a platter of food. I gratefully accepted it, and carefully poked at something with the fork provided.

"Thanks again for saving my ass back there," I said. "I'm really really really sorry I was so stupid."

"To err is human," he replied coolly, breathing out a puff of smoke.

"Alexander Pope?" I asked, confused.

"Hm? No, that quote is from some Oharan scholar."

"Oh. Weird. It's just that this Alex guy said that quote in my, er, world."

"Oh really."

That awkward moment when you have nothing to say.

For better or for worse, Leo decided to intrude on our 'conversation'.

"Hey, C!" he jogged up to us. "Sorry, but your sunglasses and bow are broken. Like, into pieces."

"S'okay," I replied. "The next place is Loguetown, right? I'll find new stuff there." I extended a hand to my stomach, where I could feel a large dent in my chest guard. Sighing, I ate a piece of meat while wondering where the hell I would get money to pay for such things. "It's not like I can get birthday money anymore…"

Leo gasped dramatically. "It's almost your birthday!" he exclaimed. "What day is it?!"

"The, uh, twelfth, of October."

"Five more days!" Leo hugged me. This time, I punched him repeatedly until he let go.

"How old are you turning?" Sanji joined in.

"Eighteen," I replied, resigning to my fate. Sanji then went on to ask me if I have any allergies. When I shook my head no, Leo grabbed it and made me nod.

"I'm allergic to perverted blond chefs," he said in a high-pitched voice. I slapped his hand away and glared at him. Without missing a beat, Sanji then asked,

"Chocolate or vanilla? For your cake, that is."

"You don't have to make me anything," I assured. "Compared to my other birthdays, as long as Leo can't drag me on an 'adventure', I'll be fine."

"But such a lovely fallen angel should be showered with gifts of all kinds when she is celebrating the day she becomes of age!"

_And here comes the poetic flirting._

"Really, I'm okay. And I am not an angel."

"Yes, now go away," Leo added. Sanji gently took away my cup.

"I'll get you some more water," he said, walking away. I heard Leo sigh heavily beside me.

"I really do hate him."

"I really do hate you," I replied, eating some more. "Hey, did you see what happen to that Wy dude?"

"Oh yeah! Well, he was mumbling something, I couldn't hear what, I just saw his lips move, and then this other guy comes out of, like, nowhere and sort of…commanded the wind to blow in our direction. Then Wy shouted something to Arlong, and they both disappeared."

"Damn Lacriyons…" I muttered.

"They're everywhere, aren't they?" Leo said. I put my cleared-off plate next to me and put my chin in my hands.

"No shit, Sherlock."

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

A few days later, while we were still on the sea, my birthday reared its ugly head. That morning, Leo and Luffy burst into the woman's cabin and yelled 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' at the top of their lungs. Thankfully, Nami swiftly threw pillows at both of them, and we got up in relative peace.

I dragged a brush through my bedhead, which was always horrible. Luckily, that morning it was relatively easy to straighten out, and I headed into the dining room/kitchen.

"Happy eighteenth birthday, Cecil!" Luffy said enthusiastically. "Here's your present from me!" He dropped something into my hand. The moment I felt it move, I shook my hand wildly, screaming, 'get it off, get it off!'

"Aww, you don't like hermit crabs?" Luffy pouted.

"Not when they're forced on me this early in the morning!" I shouted. "That nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," he said, sounding dejected.

"Eh, um, it's okay, just give me some warning next time," I hurriedly reassured. At this, he seemed to brighten up immediately.

"Okay! Here, I'm gonna put Harry on your head, alright?" Without waiting for an answer, he did exactly as he said. I cringed, waiting for it to sink its pincers into my brain or something equally painful. Instead, to my surprise, it just moved a bit then stopped, content.

_Harry the Hermit Crab, _I thought. _Cute name._

The rest of the crew wished me a happy birthday, and Sanji promised me a cake beyond my wildest dreams later. I thanked him profusely, and then sank into a chair at the table. Across from me sat Zoro, and his only comment was "You're old enough to drink now."

I tried to resist the urge to headdesk, considering that I had a living creature on my head.

The rest the day was normal as usual, and I just tried to relax and enjoy the sea.

But, of course, my luck never really seemed to last all that long.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

Yo peoples! So sorry for not posting this chapter until now! But, man, I started writing this yesterday, and now I'm done! I AM ON A ROLL.

The poll ends very soon, but don't worry if your favourite character doesn't win. Romance will not be a very big factor in this fanfiction, and so you can still enjoy this story as a whole!

See ya later,

:3

-NomSujet


	8. Nuggets of Wisdom on Unsure Futures

That night, after dinner was quickly consumed (outside, I might add), Sanji brought out the cake he had made. I couldn't see it, but I could smell the icing he had used, and I had to stop myself from drooling.

"You really didn't have to," I insisted.

"Anything for you, my sweet," he cooed. I shuddered a little, and looked down at the little grey light beside my plate. Harry crawled onto my hand, and retreated back into his shell.

"Happy birthday to you," Luffy started singing, incredibly off-key. Everyone else joined in, and I didn't even mind when they all said Cecil in place of the name. (Okay, it wasn't everybody since Sanji said something along the lines of 'my darling angel').

After the first piece of cake, I had the slight urge to marry Sanji just so he could cook for me all the time. Then I remembered that we were all living on the same ship, thus he cooked for us all the time anyway.

"Time to bring out the booze!" Zoro commanded. Sanji growled a little, but complied. Soon the party was in full swing.

"Come on, Cecilia," Nami said. I could practically hear the Cheshire smile she no doubt bore on her face. "This is your first time, right? Drink all you want!"

"Can't I at least have a cup?" I replied, rolling the bottle of alcohol around in my hand.

"You're a pirate now!" Luffy exclaimed. "So drink!"

_I really don't see what being a pirate has to do with this, _I thought. Sighing, I reasoned with myself.

"Hell, what have I got to lose?" I uncorked it slowly, and then raised the bottle to my lips. _It's not like I'm going to end up pregnant or something like those girls that teachers tell us about, right?_

_At least, I hope not._

The liquid burned, and I had to put in some effort to gulp it down. "This isn't that good," I scrunched up my face. "What's so good about it?"

"You'll get used to it," Leo replied. "Go ahead, little sister, drink some more!"

_Some role model you are, _I thought sarcastically. _Encouraging your sister to get drunk. _However, I drank another mouthful anyway.

For once, he was right. The rum tasted pretty good (or at least, addicting) after a while. The rest of the party was reduced to a blur.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

The next morning, I woke up with a pounding headache and a draft blowing on my neck. I slowly got up, stretching my arms. However, when I brought my hands down, my right hand brushed against some hair.

My entire body froze. I looked down, but there was no light lying beside me. Gingerly, I picked up the clump of hair. I immediately brought my hands to my neck.

"Shit," I murmured. Dropping the hair, I felt my head.

My hair was gone. Not all of it, just a large majority. Namely, the hair that took me a painstakingly long two years to grow out just past my shoulders. And now it was cut off.

Swearing like a trucker, I swung out my legs from underneath my covers. Feeling the hangover swirl my brain around in my skull, I stumbled my way to the bathroom, crouched over the toilet, and puked.

"Are you okay, Cecilia?" Nami patted my back gently. "Here, a glass of water." I accepted it gratefully, and then drank it all in one go.

"What…the hell happened last night?" I asked, unsure if I really wanted to know.

"Weeeell," Nami replied. "You sort of got really drunk and went on a rampage."

"…What kind of rampage?"

"The kind of rampage Luffy would have after eating fifty pounds of sugar."

"It wasn't _that _crazy, was it?"

"No, sorry, I was exaggerating. You basically crashed into a bunch of things, fell overboard a couple times, and tried to flirt with Usopp."

"He ran away, didn't he?"

"As if the devil himself were chasing."

"I hate life," I held my head in my hands. "What about my hair?"

"You wanted a new hair style and insisted on doing it yourself."

"I'm never drinking again."

Nami patted me again, and then said, "That'll be one hundred beli for the kindness, information, and sympathy."

I glared at her. "Seriously? You're charging me?"

"I've gotta make a living, you know."

"Ugh, whatever, just go away and leave me alone."

"Don't you at least want to know what you look like?"

"Horrible?"

"Well yes, that, but without, er, all _that,_ you could pass for a very cute guy."

"Please. Go." Finally, she walked away, and I was left alone to wallow in my no-cup angst.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

Later, I found that the fact that Nami had gotten to me first was a great thing. It was much better hearing all that from a fellow girl than from my brother, who simply laughed long and hard when he saw me. Needless to say, I swung a punch at him, which he didn't dodge. He was too busy busting a gut to do so.

Also, Usopp inched away whenever I was near. Zoro and Sanji didn't really care (for entirely different reasons), and Luffy simply laughed and said I looked like a dude.

For the rest of the day, I obessedly rubbed the back of my neck, just to make sure that my hair was actually gone and that I wasn't hallucinating. Unfortunately for me, my neck remained uncovered and vulnerable.

Eventually, I resigned to my fate and spent the rest of the day with Harry.

On a side note, Luffy had gotten a wanted poster. A whole whopping 30, 000, 000 beli, which translated to about three hundred thousand dollars in America.

"I could buy a house in Winnipeg for that much money," I murmured bitterly. "Seriously, all he did was beat up some pirates. That isn't breaking the law."

"The government is out to screw us over, sis," Leo had replied. "Get used to it."

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

A few days later, just after Sanji fished me out of the water since I fell over, we arrived at Loguetown.

"The town of the beginning and the end," Leo murmured as I dried off my hair with a towel. "Quiz time! Why is it called that?" I groaned.

"Leo, you've asked me this question practically every minute! It's the place where Rogers was born and where he was executed. The end."

"And?"

"Buggy, Alvida, Dragon, and Smoker. Happy?"

"Very." Leo then went to beg Nami for some money.

"Three hundred percent interest, boy. Don't forget that," she curtly replied. "As for you Cecilia…" Nami walked over and handed me some bills. "I'll be a little nicer since you're the only other girl. So is two hundred-fifty percent good? It is? Why, that's awfully swell. Enjoy yourself!"

_So that's her strategy? _I thought. _Just confirm things by herself? Reminds me a lot of what Evangeline used to do…_

And of course, the image of Evangeline lying on my bedroom floor came back to me. Shaking my head, I pressed my left hand against the wall and made my way to the girl's cabin, where I grabbed my bag. For protection, I also took Thor's Arrow, just in case. I figured I could just stab anyone who tried to hurt me with it.

"Oh, C," Leo greeted when I entered the kitchen. "I'm going with Luffy to see the execution place, so I can't go with you to buy stuff."

I sighed with relief. Honestly, if I had had to endure an entire day listening to obscure One Piece trivia, I would have murdered somebody.

"I'LL GO WITH YOU CECILIA-CHWAN!3" Sanji piped up immediately. Half-desperately, I looked around at the others.

"Sorry, I've got too many things to do," Nami said. "And Zoro's an idiot, so it really wouldn't be a good idea to pair you up with him."

Admitting defeat, I turned back to Sanji. "Thanks, then, I guess," I reluctantly said. Half an hour later, I wore new sunglasses on my face, had a cane in my hand, and we were heading for an archery shop.

"You sure we're going the right way, Sanji-san?" I asked for about the tenth billionth time. But hey, when you're blind, you're catious.

"Of course! I would never lead a beauty astray! Unless, of course, you want me to…"

"Please don't finish that sentence."

"Sorry, Cecilia-chwan. Oh, we're here." The door creaked open, and a musky, wood scent entered my nose.

"Get outta here, ya damn posers!" An elderly voice cried out. "What have I told you?!"

"Madam, we don't mean any harm," Sanji hurriedly assured. "We just want to buy some equipment."

"…oh, it's just some youngsters. Come in, come in." I stepped forward awkwardly, wondering what just happened. "Sorry 'bout shouting. It's just that this newfangled pirate crew keeps trying to buy my family heirloom." I heard her sniff with disdain. "They're all fakers; nothing at all like Rogers."

"Rogers? Like the Pirate King?" I asked.

"No, the infamous potato farmer," she replied curtly. "Course I'm talking about the Pirate King, girl! Son of a turnip, has this generation really fallen so far?"

"Um…can I just look at some products?"

"Sure, sure."

As Sanji and I walked around and I asked him questions, I could feel the old lady boring her eyes into me. Taking my new chest guard and normal arrows to the counter, Sanji counted the money and handed it to the shopkeeper.

"You two pirates?" she asked suddenly.

"Er, well, I guess so," I answered.

"Piracy ain't a game of guessing, girl, you either are or you aren't."

"Since when is an old lady in charge of the laws of piracy?" I muttered under my breath.

"Since the old lady has exceptionally good hearing despite her eyes being horrid wrecks." Surprised, I raised my head to look up at her light.

"Oh, sorry…" I trailed off. "Anyways, um, he's a pirate for sure." I pointed towards Sanji. "But I'm not so certain about where I stand."

"Who's yer captain?"

"Luffy…um, Strawhat Luffy," I recalled the wanted poster. The old lady 'hnn'ed with understanding.

"Yes, you're lucky to be with him. You will all go far." She handed me the bag with my things inside. I thanked her and walked out the door. Just before it closed, the shopkeeper called out to us.

"Stop being so hesitant, child! After all, I didn't teach that godforsaken Gol in school to be as wimpy as you, and look where he ended up! Don't think, just do!"

The door shut with a definitive thud.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-O-DOOM-

I stood in the plaza, feeling incredibly useless. The rain was extremely cold, and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I was going to catch get sick, but none of that mattered.

Because, at the present moment, Monkey D. Luffy was about to be killed.

My brain was working overtime, trying to fend off the lingering hangover while attempting to remember what Leo had taught me.

_Does Luffy actually die? He can't, right?! I mean, over six hundred chapters and five hundred episodes or whatever, he can't just die here…_

_Unless, of course, those damn Lacriyons are involved again._

Looking around frantically, I tried to see if there were any black lights around me. For a moment, I thought I had seen one, but when I looked again, it was gone.

_Oh please, god, don't let Luffy die—_

-CRACK-

My hair stood on end, and I felt heat in front of me. "Lightning?" I muttered, thinking back to Thor's Arrow.

"Lightning," Leo answered, sidling up to me.

"There you are!" I scolded. "Geez, and for a second I thought Luffy was actually gonna die!"

"Tsk, tsk, my student. If you had paid attention-"

"Lecture me later, Leo! Now what?" He grabbed my hand.

"We run back to the ship, that's what," Leo started pulling me forward. "We don't have a role to play here anymore, so let's go."

"Hey, Leo? Is Luffy just that lucky that a bolt of lightning would hit the tower? Or is it something else?"

"Something else," he replied immediately. "Although Oda never really revealed it, it's pretty much confirmed that it was Dragon, his father, who has the Weather fruit or something."

"Luffy has a dad? Who's alive?"

"Yeep. We don't ever meet him, though. At least, not until waaaaay later on." By then, we arrived at the ship. Leo climbed aboard first, then helped me up.

Eventually, everyone else arrived, and we set sail for the Grand Line. And then, for whatever reason, Zoro brought out a barrel.

"We're heading to the Grand Line now, men. And er, girls. Nakama," Luffy said. I heard a dull thud on the barrel.

"Feet on barrel dream thing," Leo whispered.

"I'm going be the Pirate King!" our lovable captain announced.

"The world's greatest swordsman!" said the resident muscle man.

"I'm going to complete a map of the world!" the navigator with the scent of oranges.

"I will be a brave warrior of the sea!" exclaimed the long-nosed liar.

"I am going to find the All Blue!" the perverted cook with a good heart.

"I'm going to protect my little sister, no matter the cost," my idiotic brother, who I may love a little bit.

I lifted my right leg and placed it gingerly on the barrel. Suddenly, I was struck with panic. _I have no idea what to say! Shit, dammit, bloody hell…_

_Stop being so hesitant, child!_

The woman's words rang clearly through my head.

_I won't be laughed at here, _I reassured myself. _These guys won't try to talk me out of my impossible dream, not like my parents. Here, in this world, I have all the time I want to fulfill my goal._

_Oh shit, just think of the schoolwork I have to make up once I return…_

_What if they hold me back a year!?_

_Dammit, we don't have enough money for another year of school…_

_Ugh, I don't want to think about this…_

_Fuck…_

_What should I say?_

_It's not a very good or realistic job anyway, and it probably doesn't pay well either. _

_I'm so stupid._

_I'll just say something about going home or whatever._

…

_But do I want to go home?_

_Don't think, just do._

"I want to…no, er, um, I _am _going t-to…" I stammered uncertaintly.

Don't think, just do.

I lifted my leg, and lowered my foot back onto the barrel with more force.

"I'm going to write a book!" I shouted, loud and proud for the whole world to hear.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

AAAAAAnd there's chapter eight, folks!

This chapter is dedictated to Alice, Allar, Julius, and Katie, my fellow members in OLIP.

The Gamma shall always be in your heart.

…

…

…

…just like Sniper Island.

-NomSujet (a.k.a. Mindie)

P.S. Who wants to read about Cecilia being drunk/flirting with Usopp/falling overboard/other shenanigans?

I sure as hell wanna write it.

Just.

FYI.

P.P.S. The poll…ended in a tie.

*bangs head on table repeatedly*

Alright, for now, I'm not gonna worry about it. Romance won't really be present until, hm, let's say Alabasta.

I'm just going to write the story as it is and make the final decision later.

Sound good?

-Mindusis

-Mindydie

-Dusis

-AsyoucanseeIhavemanynickname s

-IalsohaveplentyofHalloweenca ndy

-SuGAr rUsh!

-NomSujet


	9. Drunken Antics and Fourth Wall Breakage

Yes, a brand-spanking new story cover! And yes, I did draw it myself, courtesy of my older brother's tablet and paint tool sai. Dear mother of god, you guys cannot comprehend how _long _I've wanted a cover.

_Shut up, NomSujet, and get on with the story, _thought her readers.

Anyways, *coughyouungratefullittlepiec esofcough* this isn't Chapter Nine.

"Let's pelt her with tomatoes," one reader whispered, holding two of the rotten vegetables up.

"No, let's just shoot her," another replied, taking out a gun.

This is Chapter 8.5! In which we go back in time with my divine author powers and see just how wasted Cecilia can get!

Narrowing their eyes, the readers put their weapons away.

So, enjoy me giving my little OC baby some hell.

(Oh, and since she's drunk out of her mind, this special chapter will be told from a third-person perspective).

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

Cecilia let the bottle drop to the floor, and she stumbled around the deck aimlessly. Leo watched as she made it across to the other side-

-and practically walk overboard.

Bolting out of his chair, he quickly jumped into the ocean and forced his eyes open. Seeing his little sister's brown hair, he reached out and grabbed it. Pulling Cecilia towards him, he then put his arm around her and started to swim upward.

"Nineteen seconds," Zoro commented when Leo climbed aboard. "You didn't manage to beat your record."

"Eh, I'll get it next time," Leo replied. Meanwhile, Cecilia's eyes snapped open.

"What the hell, man," she slurred. "Don't-hic-don't pull my hair!" She pulled herself onto her feet and walked towards Sanji. She headed past him and went inside.

"Oh boy," Leo groaned. "I'll go after her." He followed her all the way into the woman's cabins. Cecilia went into the bathroom and pulled out a pair of scissors.

"Woah, woah, stop," he grabbed her by the wrist. "What are you doing?"

"'m cuttin' mah hair," she mumbled. "Now leave me alone, I can do it myself!" She pushed him back roughly and slammed the door. Leo heard the lock click, regained his balance, and tried the doorknob.

"Cecilia Alexis Daring, open this door right now or you're gonna be in a lot of trouble young lady!" _Dear God, I sound like my dad. _

"Shut up, you stupid bastard!" was the answer. "You've always been nagging me about everything! Let me live my own life, dammit!"

"What did you call me? That's it, you're getting grounded!" Leo stomped away, frustrated. "See if I care if you accidentally slit your own throat!"

"You're never gonna get a girlfriend," Sanji said once Leo came out onto the deck.

"Well, Mr. Suave, unlike you, I'm not a virgin."

And of course, at that, the blonde chef flew into a rage and kicked Leo in the side, propelling him into a wall.

"I'M NOT A VIRGIN EITHER, YA LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!" Sanji growled. He then stalked into the kitchen, muttering obscenities along the way.

Since Leo was not made of rubber like Luffy, nor did he have a shield of muscle and pure willpower like Zoro, he was knocked unconscious.

"Nami, what's a virgin?" Luffy whispered to his navigator. She merely groaned, and hit Luffy upside the head, effectively ending a conversation she didn't want to have any time soon.

Cecilia's shenanigans, on the other hand, were far from over.

She stumbled out of the bathroom, her hair cropped all the way up to her neck; shorter than even Nami's. Some longer pieces still hung from her head, since she hadn't pulled them out after cutting the strands. Cecilia made her way over to Usopp and slung an arm over his shoulders.

"Hey, handsome," Cecilia said. "Is it true what they say about guys with long noses?" She flicked Usopp's nose playfully.

"Er…" Usopp's eyes darted around, looking for a way to escape his sudden predicament. Of course, it wasn't because he never had a girl come up to him like this; no, no, he was _very _used to this kind of thing. In fact, back at his hometown, he was known as the King of Pimps! Yes sir, Usopp had just about wooed over every girl back at Syrup Village.

But he was far from coldhearted! Usopp had gently left each girl with a tearful goodbye and a sincere apology; and because he was so nice, he would rather stay in the friend zone with one of his treasured nakama.

Yep, that was exactly it.

"Um…I don't know what they say about guys with long noses so I can't really judge whether it's true or not…" Usopp gingerly lifted Cecilia's arm.

"I heard they've got a huge ju-"

Startled, Usopp pushed Cecilia away. His face beet red, he ran away to the safety of the men's cabin.

Cecilia, meanwhile, lay on the ground with her back to the air. Nami rolled her eyes, sighed, and crouched down beside her.

"You okay, Daring?" she asked. When she got no reply, Nami stood up with her hands on her hips. "Dammit, this girl's too broke to steal from. Zoro! Carry her to the woman's cabin!"

"Why should I?" Zoro replied. "She looks fine there."

"Remember your debt!" Nami sang. Zoro gritted his teeth with irritation, dropped his empty bottle of booze on the deck, and walked over to Cecilia.

"Didn't she only have half a bottle?" he muttered under his breath. Zoro bent down, about to grab onto Cecilia's arms, when her eyes suddenly burst open.

"Kamehameha…" she groaned. Zoro's eyebrows furrowed with confusion, but he chose not to ask.

"Great, you're awake. Now…er, go to bed or something, it's pretty obvious you can't take anymore."

"Gah, what are all these lights?" Cecilia asked, too dazed to recognize the only thing she could see.

"How the hell do I know?" Zoro growled, irritated with the drunk. "Go to bed already!"

"I don't wanna…" and with that, Cecilia began to crawl away like a caterpillar. Zoro faceplamed.

_I don't have time to play babysitter! I got twelve more bottles of booze waiting for meeeee… _he despaired.

Taking one long step, he immediately caught up to Cecilia. He grabbed her by the legs, and started to pull her below deck.

"Lemme go! Dammit, you mother fucking son of a bitch!" Cecilia continued to scream swears while Zoro calmly ignored them. Swears were no big deal to him. Not in the slightest.

And then Cecilia started scream rape.

Out of nowhere, Sanji appeared, even posing dramatically. "Unhand her, Marimo!" he pointed an accusing finger at said swordsman. "Don't even think of forcing your disgusting self on such a beautiful maiden!"

"I'M NOT THINKING OF ANYTHING LIKE THAT!" Zoro yelled. "You're the pervert here!"

Without warning, Sanji swung a leg towards Zoro. The green haired man let go of Cecilia, and blocked Sanji's foot with his right arm. While the two mortal enemies fought, Cecilia, once again, crawled away.

This time, however, she actually made it to the woman's cabins (even if she did bump into every wall about a dozen times each along the way). She grabbed onto her bedsheets, and haphazardly climbed onto her bed.

Cecilia closed her eyes, and fell asleep, not knowing about the impending hell she would face once she awoke.

_That's gonna be one hell of a hangover, _Derek mused.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

Kind of lame, I know. I'm sorry, if this didn't live up to your standards.

But. Really.

:D I don't give a flying cra-

/shot

"Reader number two!" Reader number one shrieked. "What did you do that for?!"

"She was annoying me," Reader Two mumbled, surrounded with a backdrop of badassery.

"You killed her! Now we'll never get to see Cecilia, like, die or whatever!"

"Don't worry. These are special bullets that give someone the energy to do what they regret not doing at their time of death." Hitching up the cool-ass shades that appeared out of nowhere, Reader Two continued. "Yes, this insolent weakling is the heir to the infamous mafia group, the-"

"That's not even One Piece anymore!" Reader One protested. "That's Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Don't just crossover series as you please!"

Reader Two silently wondered if she should kill One as well.

"All your thoughts are being typed onto the page, dumbass."

Well played, my fellow reader. Well played.

-NomSujet


	10. Looking Back at What Was Left Behind

Compared to the other's ambitions, mine was incredibly lame. I mean, just think about it!

"_Oh, you want to write a book? Bitch, please, __I'm__ gonna be the king of the world."_

But, of course, they all accepted it whole-heartedly.

"TO THE GRAND LINE!" Luffy shouted. "LET'S GO!" We all lifted our feet once again and brought them down, breaking the barrel into pieces. Immediately, Nami started shouting out orders. I retreated back inside, knowing I would just get in the way. Making sure Harry was still safe in my bag, I made my way to the kitchen in search of something to eat.

Imagine my surprise when I find a Lacriyon.

I quickly stepped back, only to bump into the wall. Groping for the doorway, I mentally refreshed my map of the ship and how to get back up without hassle. The black light remained motionless throughout this, however, and so I assumed that he or she hadn't seen me.

_Perfect, now to get Luffy or Zoro or whatever..._

That's when the ship suddenly lurched to the side. Being totally unprepared, I literally flew off my feet, and ended up crashing into the Lacriyon.

"!" he grunted in surprise. The ship didn't stop, however, and the two of us continued to roll around the kitchen floor as one indistinguishable mesh.

_He smells like smoke, _I crinkled my nose. By then, the Lacriyon realized who I was, and pushed me away roughly. I hit my head hard on a chair, making my brain spin. I looked up, glaring, but the man was already leaving.

_No death threats this time, how pleasant, _I thought. _What was up with him?_

After all, it was indeed strange that I would come face-to-face with a Lacriyon and not have a near-death experience.

Rubbing the sore spot on my head, I got back up. Reaching a hand inside my bag to make sure Harry wasn't crushed, I stuck my head into the hallway and looked both ways. Fortunately for me, the man had disappeared.

Sighing with relief and confusion, I grabbed a cookie and sat down at the table.

A few minutes later, the rest of the crew came in. I quickly stopped trying to balance my cane on my nose and regained my composure.

Nami, being completely used to weirdness, simply started to explain how we were going to get into the Grand Line. Since Leo had already told me how, I simply smiled and nodded at the appropriate times. Meanwhile, my head throbbed and my stomach clenched and unclenched at the sheer of thought of going up a mountain in a ship.

_That guy...was really warm..._I mused. And it was true. He wasn't wet at all despite the rain outside, and when I flew into him, it was like being enveloped in a blanket that just came out of the dryer.

"Earth to Cecil, come in Cecil," my brother tried to get my attention. I blinked, and then turned to look at him.

"Hey, the storm stopped," I commented.

"Yeah, now grab onto something secure."

"Why? There aren't any wav-" for the second time in a thirty minutes, the ship suddenly moved. This time, the ship went straight up, and it felt like I was in an airplane. I swallowed instinctively, getting the feeling out of my ears.

"We're in the Calm Belt, C. And Calm Belt equals Sea Kings." I clung onto the table, squeezed my eyes shut, and prayed for it to be over.

Half an hour later, the Monster Trio (as Nami and I had dubbed them) fought their way through the beasts, but we were still in the Calm Belt.

"EVERYONE GET OUT HERE AND START ROWING, DAMMIT!" Nami yelled from the deck. Leo and I hurried to get outside, and Leo then went to row. I stood beside Nami, letting Harry crawl from one hand to another. "What are you doing, Cecilia Daring?!" she yelled into my ear. "Get down there and row!"

I turned to her with genuine surprise. "Wait, what? But I'm blind!"

"Quit it with the excuses!" Nami snatched Harry and handed me an oar. "You'll never get anything accomplished in your life if you just sit on your ass all the time! Now go!"

I stumbled towards the guys. I sat on the opposite side of Leo, extended my oar, and tried to get into the rhythm. Oh, it was okay at first, especially after I got the hang of it. But after a while (and by a while, I mean about ten minutes) of using all my strength, I was ready to collapse. My arms were numb, and my butt hurt from sitting so long.

Thus, when I felt rain fall on me, I welcomed it with open arms. Lying spread eagled on the wooden deck, I breathed deeply in and out. Nami then proceeded to spout some sort of navigatory, scientificy explanation about Reverse Mountain that I didn't understand. In fact, I was so dead tired, my brain happily accepted Luffy's way of thinking; it's a magic mountain.

I felt someone lift me up, but I was too tired to care. The person carried me inside and tucked me in my bed. I thought about making some kind of complaint about a guy being inside the woman's cabin, but decided it was meaningless.

Before I fell asleep, I could've sworn I felt someone kiss me on the forehead and murmur, "Good work."

It must have been my imagination.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

When I awoke, I was back at school. "So what, is this is how it's gonna go?" I asked. "Every time I go to sleep, you're gonna take me here?"

"Not every time," Derek replied from behind me. "I haven't bothered you all week!" I sighed.

"What do you want with me this time? Are you going to answer my question about Lacriyons? Or are you just going to dodge it again?"

"Well, since I didn't see yo- _bother _you all week, I got kind of lone- _bored ._ So, er, here you are, hehheh..."

I cocked an eyebrow at his broken sentence. _Tch, he's acting like a teenage boy. _

"Fine, I'll tolerate you for the time being. Now what?"

"Well," Derek looked down at his shuffling feet. "I thought I could show you how those arrows work."

My eyes widened with surprise. "Really? That's actually not douchey!"

Derek smiled widely. He reached for my quiver, and pulled out some arrows. "You've already figured some of these out, right?"

"Not nearly enough, though," I admitted.

"Let's start with this one," he began.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

Principal Sahl's eyebrows furrowed. He reread the newspaper article many times before setting it down. Resting his forehead in his hands, he sighed heavily.

_First Cynthia, now her friends Amelia and Emily...I can't help but think that these things are all connected..._

Sighing again, he fished out his cell phone with every intent to call the police and report Cynthia's disappearance.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a voice from the corner. He whirled around, and came face to face with a woman. Narrowing his eyes, he started speaking in a steely tone.

"Who are you and why are you in my office?"

"Hm, you're quite handsome," the raven haired woman licked her lips. "But of course, my heart belongs to certain greenhead."

"I dislike prostitutes," he replied bluntly. At this, the woman grew angry.

"You're lucky I'm allowed to kill you!" she screamed. "Otherwise you'd be biting the dust right now!" Sahl remained silent and calculating. Confronting unruly teenagers everyday had given him an edge, thus an advantage in this argument.

"Screw you, you damn geezer!" the woman continued. Suddenly, metal blades burst from her arms. Sahl stumbled back with surprise. "That's right, be scared." She smirked, happy that she now had the upper hand. She stepped closer, and with each step her high heels made their distinct sound. "I ain't human, you jackass, and I can-and will-hurt you in ways you can't even imagine."

The man gulped nervously, and nodded.

"You will tell no one of Cecilia's disappearance. My advice to you is to just completely forget about her. And I mean _completely."_She brought up one of her blades up to his neck, and made a quick slit.

Sahl quickly brought his hands up to his neck, and that's when the woman took advantage of his opening and kicked him in the stomach.

Before Sahl blacked out, he saw the mysterious woman slowly fade away. The last thing he saw was the satisfied smirk on her lips.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

Some might say the worst way to wake up is to be splashed with a bucket of water. Cold water, nonetheless. Well, I think I can safely say they are wrong.

The worst way to wake up is to thrown off your bed because you live on a ship, and said ship is currently going up a mountain.

Yes, that was how I awoke.

Groaning, I brought a hand up to my head for about the fiftieth time that day. Stumbling a bit, I groped for my cane, and used it to find my way back on to the deck.

The sea sprayed me as I stepped outside. Zipping up my jacket, I moved my hand to get my hair out, but was suddenly reminded of the stupid things I did while drunk.

"Where are we?" I asked Nami, who was shouting at the guys to get their asses moving. "In the Grand Line yet?"

"Well-" she started, but was interrupted by the ship hitting the sea hard. All of us were drenched, but I just knew that we were smiling from ear to ear. Undoubtedly.

"WE'RE HERE!" Luffy exclaimed. "ONE PIECE, HERE WE COME!" This was followed by a chorus of cheers.

I faced the wind, and breathed in the salty air. "So this is the Grand Line, huh?" I muttered. "Of course, it doesn't make much of a difference to me..."

That's when I noticed the tiny grey light. "Hey, guys, is there someone there?" I asked.

"Hm, no, there's just that...huge...wall?" Usopp turned his statement into a question out of confusion.

"Whatever it is, I can just cut it," Zoro said nonchalantly.

_Of course you can, Mr. Macho, _I rolled my eyes. _Geez, these people are all so simple-minded._

"That's not a wall...!" Nami suddenly piped up. "That's a WHALE!"

_God, of all the times to be blind! I've always wanted to see a whale..._

"We'll go around it," Leo inputted. "Duh."

While Sanji beat Leo up for, and I quote, 'sassing Nami-swan', Nami returned Harry to me. From my hand, he crawled up onto my head, and I tried not to shiver at the feeling of little pinpricks.

Once he was firmly perched, I turned my attention back to the grey light. _Is that the whale? Or someone else?_I wondered.

While I mused, Luffy decided to punch the whale.

Yeah. Punch the whale.

Really, I should be used to Luffy's...lack of a brain by then, but even today, I tend to question his actions.

However, at the time, I had bigger things to worry about than Luffy's idiocy.

Such as the whale.

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-CUZ-I-DISLIKE-FANFICTION'S

Shara watched as her best friend paced back and forth in front of her. After watching her for about five minutes, she finally spoke up.

"Do you remember?" she began. Ravenia turned to look at her. "Around twenty years ago…"

"What?"

"You told me, and I quote, 'You know, this is kind of embarrassing, but I really do love Nez a lot. I don't think I'll ever leave him.'"

"Oh, that? Well, people move on, Shara. And now, I have."

"Don't you think it's kind of sudden? After that fight with the target and her bodyguard, you're suddenly in love with the bodyguard?"

"All of our feelings and emotions are controlled by other things, you know that. So this isn't my fault. Something in Andy has changed."

"I don't think that's a plausible explanation..."

"There's no other one, is there? Er, what is that one quote by that Holmes character?"

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"

"Yes! See, Shara? You're brain, and I'm brawn! We make a good team, no?"

"Whatever you say, Veni."

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-

He cracked his knuckles viciously out of habit. After he finished with his fingers, he continued to crack the other joints on his body.

"That's really disgusting, you know," his roommate criticized, sneering. "They say it causes arthritis."

"I don't give a fuck," he bluntly replied.

"Yeesh, man, I'm trying to help you."

"The only way you would be of any use to me whatsoever is if you knew how to cross through the various multiverses."

"Dude, what the hell are you talking about?"

He didn't talk, didn't move, barely even breathed.

After a while, his annoying roommate finally left the room. He stood up and walked over to his suitcase; from it, he fished out a framed photograph.

Stroking it as softly as one would stroke a newborn kitten, he muttered one word.

_Cecilia..._

-SCENE-TRANSITION-LINE-AKA-CLIFFHANGER-O-DOOM

And suddenly. Cliffhangeeeeeeer.

Mwahaha.

Anyhoo, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Not much OP plot this time, it was more of a 'what's happening on Earth?' kinda chapter. Yes, eventually...the two 'world's are going to clash.

I don't think any other OC-falls-into-OP story has ever done this before, so I'm reeaaaally excited about this.

Out of the ones that I've ever read, the OC's parents or other people are rarely ever mentioned. But now...

Well, I won't spoil anything. ;)

Happy Holidays, whatever you celebrate! Have a save and happy winter!

-NomSujet


	11. Contemplating Self

Not really interested in the whale, I stayed inside the ship. Leo had already told me everything up to the end of the Alabasta arc, and since I couldn't really 'experience' the inside of a whale without sight, I figured I'd just stay inside, and think for a while.

_My original plan was to just stay inside the ship whenever something big's going on..._I idly played with Harry. _But I went against that with Arlong...and ended up having my ass handed to me on a fucking silver platter._

Remembering my idiocy in Cocoyashi did not make my mood any brighter. "But how pathetic would I look staying in the ship all the time?" I muttered.

_This isn't about pride or appearances, Cecilia. You could seriously get hurt, or even killed, _I argued back.

Having nothing to say, I laid my head on the table. _At least Derek stopped being a total douchenozzle and taught me how to use these magic arrows..._

I sat up, placed Harry on my head, picked up my cane, and made my way to the woman's room. I then transferred the crab from my head to the habitat Usopp had kindly built for me in his spare time. From my bag, I fished out the book on Braille. "Might as well..." I said to myself. Slowly, I felt the cover, trying to make sense of the bulging letters. "Braille for Dummies...gee, that sounds _perfect _for me."

I closed my eyes, and spent the next half an hour focusing intently on the book.

In that time, two new people boarded our ship.

Mr. Nine seemed incredibly egotistic, and his light was practically the same shade as Nami, thus I disliked him immediately.

Vivi, on the other hand, I had to admire. I, myself, am not even brave enough to ask out someone I had a crush on, but she just goes and infiltrates a criminal organization. I was suddenly reminded of how pathetic I was.

But then came the question of whether Vivi counted as an actual person. _Well, that depends, am I in a One Piece book or something? Or is this world different from Earth, but constructed and given life whenever this Oda person draws it? Is Oda God, in a sense?_

_I've read to many philosophy books._

"Although Leo probably considers Oda as God..." I chuckled, remembering all the times he woke everyone up in the middle of the night either giggling so hard he falls off the chair or bawling like a newborn child. Or screaming about the injustices of the government.

Dad eventually just confiscated Leo's laptop during the night. But then Leo just watched it on his iPod touch. After _that _was taken, he took to reading the manga.

"Hey, are you going to stay here all day?" Nami came into the room. "There's work to do outside."

"Aw, come on! I just helped row our way out of the Calm Belt! I'm tiiiiiiiired!" She hit me lightly on my head.

"Before that, put a coat on. It's snowing outside." I heard her open the closet. "Ah, you don't have one, do you? Here, I'll lend you one of mine."

"Thanks," I stood and took the offered piece of clothing.

"Now, go out and shovel the snow of the deck!" she pushed me outside. "To repay me for the coat."

Sighing, but not feeling up to the challenge of going against Nami, I slipped my arms through the sleeves. Leaving my cane and the book behind, I stepped onto the deck, where I found Sanji also shovelling.

"Cecilia-chwan! Did you come to praise me?" he asked.

"Um, Nami told me to help you..." I changed the subject quickly.

"I can't let a lady do the dirty work! I can handle it by myself!"

"Well, shovelling snow is sort of my specialty from where I come from," I gestured for a shovel, feeling confident. Sanji reluctantly handed me one.

"And where are you from?" the cook asked.

"A city called Winnipeg. It snows almost all the time there," I tossed some snow over the side of the ship. "I always have to shovel the snow because Leo was always being too lazy to do it when Mom asked."

"I should've expected Cecilia to be such a good girl!"

We fell into a silence, in which I wondered if I would ever have a normal conversation with Sanji. Considering his track record, I doubted it.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard the heavy thud of lightning. Then came the wind. "Turn the ship around!" Nami shouted. "We're going the wrong way!" But just as we were rushing around, the weather was calm again.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked uncertainly.

"This is the Grand Line, you know," Miss Wednesday spoke up, with every bit of smugness as what I would expect from a villainess- or a twelfth grader. "Do you even know what you're doing?"

Nami kicked them outside. "Why don't _you_ freeloaders do some work!" She then proceeded to yell out various instructions to the others. I, having zero experience with ships and their associated parts, was let off the hook for now.

Since the weather was now warmer, I took off my jacket and tied the sleeves around my waist.

"WE'RE GONNA HIT!" Usopp's frantic shout surprised me.

_Hit? Hit what?_

"Cecil!" Nami yelled. "Leo! Come help with the helm, dammit!"

Unfortunately, I couldn't reach it quick enough, and the ship shook as it hit the mystery object.

"The ship's taking in water below deck!" Luffy informed us. The rest of the conversation was lost to me as the wind picked up again. Thunder boomed ominously, and all of us scrambled around the ship, desperately trying to fight against the elements.

It was precisely the kind of chaos I never wanted to face, especially when I was blind. Most of the period was just me trying to keep my footing and not fall off the ship for the umpteenth time.

Finally, _finally, _after I don't even know how long, the waves were calm and the weather peaceful.

And we arrived at our first stop.

Whiskey Peak.

-TRANSITION-

While Nami explained to us about the Log Pose and Usopp contracted an apparently deadly disease, I equipped my gear. Even though Leo had told me Whiskey Peak was a pretty low-key story arc in terms of fights, I wasn't betting on the Lacriyons backing off for a long time. The Going Merry and its inhabitants approached the island with evident apprehension.

Imagine our surprise when we were greeted by cheering and laughter.

"Welcome to the Grand Line!"

"Welcome to our town, Whiskey Peak!"

"Daddy, look, it's PIRATES!"

"Long live the heroes of the seas! Banzai!"

Once we actually set foot on the island, we were welcomed by the mayor, Mr. Igarropoi, who seemed to have some sort of throat problem. Soon, we all basically got swept off our feet and into the party.

And man, what a party it was.

Politely refusing all offers of alcohol, I spent the first half of the party sitting on a couch, sipping fruit juice, not quite sure what to do. Suddenly, a grey light plopped down on the couch beside me.

"Hey there, Mister," she said. I could hear the sly smile in her voice. "You alone?"

"And would like to _stay _that way, thank you very much," I retorted, scooching away from her. "I'm not a mister."

"You're one of the pirates, right?" she continued, not hearing my last sentence. "You don't look so dangerous..."

"Look, there are plenty of other guys here who would be happy to flirt with the likes of you, but not me," I stood up. "And I'm a _girl_, by the way."

Suddenly, I was approached by another grey light.

"I was wondering about your gender," he said. "Well, I'm relieved that you're female." He lowered my sunglasses. "You have very unique eyes, you know."

I pushed him away, and hitched my sunglasses up. Grabbing my cane, I headed in the direction of the others' lights.

"Woah there, where do you think _you're _going?" he grabbed onto my arm; his hands were rough, and they grated against my skin. "Come with me, darling, I can show you a good time..."

I grabbed an arrow and waved it threateningly. "I know how to use this!"

"And I know how to use _this_," I heard the sound of a gun behind my head.

I tried to locate the others, really, anyone who could help me, but the crowd of grey seemed to swell and swarm, blocking my sight.

I blindly made a move to stab the bastard with the arrow, but he deftly dodged my attacks. Against my will, I was led off, away from Luffy and the others.

Just before they silenced me with a hand, I wondered desperately if Leo would hear my calls.

-TRANSITION-

"You do realize you're endangering the _entire _plan by-_cough, cough, mi mi miii_- doing something as rash as this, right?"

_Igarropoi, _I thought viciously.

"Aw, come on boss, she's weak as a kitten! The perfect hostage."

"Hm, fine, but she's our last resort. The plan has been set in stone for weeks now; we don't need any changes. It's worked fine before."

"Gotcha, boss."

The asshat of a mayor (if he even was one) walked back into the party. I heard the door lock with a definite click. _Goddamit, _I thought, struggling to get back on my feet with my ankles bound. _This wasn't in Leo's speech...gah, I was probably a sitting duck!_

I felt a foot on my back, pressing down.

The bastard didn't even need to talk; I immediately froze up, and stayed that way for the rest of the night.

-TRANSITION-

I must've fallen asleep at some point, because I woke up. The foot was still diligently on my back, but it only seemed to be resting there, instead of pushing downwards like before. I could hear his even breathing, telling me that he was asleep.

The party was silent, but if I strained my ears, I could hear the sounds of battle outside.

"Onigiri!"

Yep, definitely Zoro. _So it's the middle of the night, Luffy and Nami will wake up, but Sanji and Usopp will still be in the building..._

I groped for an arrow from my side quiver. I kept my 'magical' arrows in there now, and my regular arrows in the one on my back.

_Electrocuting him will only wake him up, or maybe kill him, _I thought. _Which still wouldn't help me get out of here. Blowing him into pieces wouldn't be pleasant at all..._

_I thought I swore to myself I would never use this arrow again..._

_Fuck..._

I rolled onto my back, and jabbed Cupid's Arrow into the guy's leg.

He woke up with a jolt, and nearly fell over. I quickly extracted the arrow and threw it to the side. It would return to me later, anyway.

"You..." he trailed off.

_Did it work? Please tell me it worked._

He quickly untied the gag and the ropes.

The guy then embraced me.

_At least I'm free...now what?_

"Get away from me, you asshole!" I pushed him away. _Payback time, bastard. _"What do you think you're doing! You tied me up and shoved me in...actually, I don't know where this is. Probably some closet or something."

"I'm sorry! But I love you!" _Well that was sudden._

"Then let me out of here," I crossed my arms in an attempt to look fierce. "...Honey."

"Aw, I know you couldn't stay mad at meeeeee, dear," he cooed. "By the way, my name is Chris."

I nearly burst out laughing. It seemed so hilarious that we were calling each other nicknames before we even knew each other's names.

"Cecilia..." I wrenched myself out of his bear-trap hug. "Can I leave now?"

"Course, darling..." he stood up and unlocked the door. "Call me?"

"Perhaps," I inwardly grinned. _He's kinda cute for an asshole. _I heard him scribble something and rip the page. He handed the scrap to me.

"My den den mushi," he whispered.

I almost smiled, but then I remembered that his love for me was only artificial. "Where's my cane?"

Chris handed it to me. "See ya later, C," he slapped my butt as I walked out. When I turned to glare, he only laughed.

_It's kinda creepy that he calls me the same nickname as the one Leo gave me..._

I shook my head. _Don't get your head in fantasies. He doesn't actually love you, it was all the arrow's doing..._

_Still..._

_It was kinda nice to be loved..._

-TRANSITION-

After helping Zoro carry Leo to the ship (actually, all I did was trail behind and kept Leo's head from slamming into the ground.), we set sail. The heat of the flames from the explosion bid us farewell.

Although, after a while, I noticed a stowaway.

"There's someone other than us here..." I muttered to Nami. However, before she could do anything about it, the stowaway revealed herself.

Not particularly surprised, I fiddled with my arrows, checking to make sure Cupid's Arrow had returned.

"I suggest you take the route I told you about," she jumped off the ship. "Otherwise, you might find yourself in some...troublesome situations..."

I could slightly hear her laughing as she sailed off.

-TRANSITION-

Alright, alright, I'm sorry for the incredibly long delay! I have a good excu- REASON! Yeah, reason.

Weeeeeell, on December 31st, my family moved from an apartment to a house. I actually caught a cold from being exhausted and overworked. T.T (Hey, I have to take apart a twin bed, a queen bed, and a bunk bed, move them into the moving truck, and then put them back together! And help haul my older bro's motorcycle into the truck as well...I have no idea why he didn't just drive it there, but whatever.)

And, uh, I kinda forgot about Blind for a month. Literally, I forgot about its existence. Until one of my friends, who was reading it, asked me about it.

_Oh, shit..._thought the irresponsible writer.

So, here it is!

Happy Belated Chinese New Year!

And Belated Valentine's Day!

And Belated Groundhog's Day!

And Belated New Year's Day!

(Yeah, I think that's it...)

-NomSujet


	12. Foreshadowing and Redemption Plans

*hands you a gun* Alright, go ahead, shoot me. No, seriously, kill me.

NO, please don't actually kill me.

Sorry! SORRY! (BTW, this is going to be a loooooong ass author's note, so you are welcome to skip straight to the chapter if you so wish)

Alright, here's the deal. My life has gone straight down the shitter. Like, WHOOSH. FLUSH.

But I won't bore you with my teenage angst. The main point I'm trying to get to is that rest assured, unless I die, I will never ever ever abandon Blind. Yes, there might be some times where there are months between updates, buuuuuut please be patient with me. Like I said, life's hard right now. I hope you guys can understand. Thank you.

(But don't worry 'bout me. I'll bounce back; I always do. ;P )

The second thing I wanted to mention is something that has been bothering me for the longest time. As many of you may have noticed, the One Piece fanfiction archives are cluttered to the absolute brim with OC stories. Whether it's OC falls into One Piece, or OC pirate crew sails the five seas, or a simple OC x OP Character fic.

And it's completely understandable. One Piece is one of those rare animes that have created an entire world for its story. There is plenty of flexibility in such a vast environment.

However, many of those fics, not all, aren't good. They're usually sub-par, uncreative, or poorly planned out.

But NomSujet, asks the reader. If you think that there are so many OC fics, then why the hell did you add to that pile by writing your own?

Simple, my dear reader. Because I wanted to write a good OC fic. Something other people can read and genuinely enjoy. A fic like The Tale of an OP Delinquent by Kingman13, or Live 'til ya drop! by Snoara. (24601 stars outta 10 for both, highly recommend you read 'em. They're _fabulous_). A fic that rises above the others of its kind.

And looking back at my eleven chapters and fifty-seven reviews, I feel like I just might accomplish this far-fetched goal of mine.

You know, sometimes I get minor panic attacks when writing Cecil, because I'm afraid that I might make her too perfect, or too boring, or make her become a Mary-Sue accidentally (which is so easy to do!).

_Oh man, maybe she's too weak. But it wouldn't be good for her to be overpowered! Yeah, but she's gonna be annoying if she keeps being pathetic. Oh god, is it her hair? Is it too spiky? Not spiky enough? _(Bonus points to anyone who got that reference.)

Something I get increasingly worried about is the fact that my fic will be brushed off as just 'oh, not _another _one'. No pun intended, but it's really easy to get lost in the vast sea of OC fics.

But I'll try my best! Just the other day, when I was checking my email, I got a notification that someone followed my fic! It was actually really shocking. I mean, how the heck did this person find me, when I haven't frigging updated since February?! But thank you, xXxIRISxXx. You made me get off my sorry ass and start typing this chapter.

So for everyone who has this story in their favourites or followed lists, thank you so so so so much! I wish I could hug each and every one of you! Truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart. All of you motivate me to do my best.

AND THAT IS WHAT I SHALL DO! GRAAAAH!

LET'S GO! CHAPTER ELEVEN, WOO!

-TRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAINSITION- (ahaha, I'm _punny_)

Sailing, I had finally realized, was incredibly mundane. Sure, there were freak storms and sea monsters, but you get used to them after a while.

_Another sea monster? Well, at least I know what we're eating for dinner tonight. _

_Oh, wowzzers, another snowstorm in the middle of summer? Oh, it's gone. _

Of course, boredom meant peace, and peace meant staying alive. So I refrained from complaining, and focused instead on keeping myself entertained. Let's just say I now have most of the Braille alphabet memorized. And that Harry adores me, and has made my head his permanent home.

Derek kept teaching me more about the arrows. Sometimes he would drown me with so much information that I actually had to take notes (in the 'dream' world, where I could see, of course).

For some reason, only a third of the arrows were actually useful. The rest were…kind of just plain stupid.

"Who created these things?" I had asked one time.

Strangely enough, Derek had a tint of melancholy in his eye when he answered my question. "Oh, some old lady who no one cares about any more."

He dodged all of my questions about the arrows' origins after that.

"Laaaaaaaaaand hooooooooooo!" I heard Leo call out.

Luffy had decided not to heed the advice of the stowaway and keep travelling the way the Log Pose directed us. Thus, we ended up docking at Little Garden.

"You wanna come exploring with us?" Leo asked me. "There are dinosaurs!"

"No no no no, not in a million years, Leo. I'll just stay here where it's safe," I assured him.

"Wimp," I heard him remark under his breath. "Well, see you in a few!"

Nami and Usopp also opted to stay on board, while Luffy, Vivi, and Leo headed off. Zoro and Sanji, on the other hand, stormed off to have some sort of testosterone-fuelled contest.

I was in the women's cabin when a loud booming voice resonated outside. It scared me to death for the first few seconds, but then I remembered that it was just a friendly giant. Nonetheless, I stayed inside, and waited until the thundering footsteps faded away.

I walked out onto the deck. "Nami? Usopp?" No reply.

"Great, I'm alone on the ship," I muttered to myself. "I guess it's up to me to protect it. Damn."

I sat down, cross-legged, sighing. _Well, at least I don't think anyone will attack the ship. That wasn't in Professor Leo's Crash Course on One Piece. _

_But of course, like always, the Lacriyons could come and fuck everything up. _

-SPEAKING-OF-LACRIYONS-TRANSITION-

"Oh my God, OH MY GOD! Look, Shara, look!" Ravenia squealed. Shara looked up, shocked. Her mature and sly friend did not _squeal_. It simply wasn't in her personality.

"What is it?" Shara looked down to where Ravenia was pointing a perfectly manicured finger. "Oh. _Him_."

"Just look at those muscles! He's so damn delicious! I just want to eat him up!"

Shara rolled her eyes, and turned her attention back to her book. "He's your enemy, Ravenia. And besides, he's just some muscle-brained jock. Nez is waaaay better."

"You can have Nez then," Ravenia sniffed indignantly. "Zoro's the man for me."

_No thanks, not when he's going through so much trouble to get you back, _Shara thought, flipping a page. _Poor guy. _

"We should be focusing on capturing the targets, right? Look, she's alone on the ship. We should just grab her and get her back to Him," Shara suggested.

"No, not yet," her partner said.

"Why not? The sooner the better, right? Otherwise…"

"He needs to come into this world first. That is His fate."

"Uh, no, that is the only fate we know of. And come on, even you can admit that Him coming here will cause many…gruesome situations."

"Nonetheless…" Ravenia lowered her camera. "It's the way we need to do it. Now, let's go."

"Go? Where? I thought we were going to continue surveillance on the targets."

"I need to get these pictures developed! And then add them into my scrapbook, obviously."

"Pictures? Oh, of the Weed? So that's what you were doing this whole time."

Ravenia hit Shara lightly on the head, and glared down on her. "He isn't a weed!"

_He __is __to my plans, _Shara thought. Strangely, she was suddenly reminded of something her predecessor used to say.

"_In the world of the Lacriyons, alliances are short, and friendships are even shorter."_

_Not that there ever was a friendship between this buffoon and I. _

-OH-HO-HO-DO-I-SMELL-BETRAYAL-TRANSITION-

"Yo, Andy, you in here?" the roommate poked his head into the room. It was empty. Actually, it was too empty. The only things left were his own; Andy's clothes and belongings, not to mention the person himself, were all absent.

"The fuck, man?" he muttered. "Not even a note or anything. Weird."

Meanwhile, Andy was a couple thousand miles away, and standing in front of a certain someone's house.

Police cars were parked in the driveway, and plenty of people other than him were milling about.

He stared down at the crumpled piece of paper in his hand. Andy had memorized its contents already, but looking at the neat handwriting left his heart at ease.

'To Whom it May Concern, my brother and I have been transported to an alternate dimension following the plotline and rules of a manga called 'One Piece'.

He crushed it again. _One Piece…the franchise Leo loved. I need to go there. I need to retrieve them._

No matter the cost.

-FORESHADOWING-TRANSITION-

"I'm so booooored…" I sang to no one. "Please, can we leave alreeeeeadyyyy."

I leaned forward on the railings, looking into the distance to see if I could spot any lights. Nope. None whatsoever. But then, in the corner of my eye, I noticed something.

Four lights. All going in separate directions, but it seemed like they were working together at one point. A brown, a bright yellow, a greyish-white, and a multicoloured one. The rainbow one dazzled me for a second, and I kept my eyes on that one for awhile, before I snapped out of it.

_Enemies? Must be, all the Lacriyons have black lights and they don't match the Strawhats._

"What should I do…" I muttered, methodically tapping my cane on the deck. "Nothing, that's what. Just stay here and let the plot take course by itself."

However, that didn't make the sinking feeling in my gut go away. After all, Leo was on the island as well…

_No, no, he'll be fine._

_Are you sure about that?_

"Agh, no I'm not!" I shouted in frustration. Why didn't I stop him from going? I lowered the stairs, and slowly made my way down them. Without someone on board, there was no way for me to raise it back up, but that didn't matter anyway. The Merry would be fine.

I hated how helpless I felt as I made my way through the forest. My pace was painstakingly slow, and I was paranoid of every single sound or bump in the path.

Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the island. The scent of ash and smoke filled the air. When it finally stopped, I could hear the footsteps of the giants. And they were getting louder and louder…

_Oh boy, I'd better not get caught in the middle of their battle._

I could see a few familiar lights off in the distance, but the jungle prevented me from going where I wanted to. So I followed the beaten path, and just hoped it would take me to the others.

It took me quite awhile. I'd even say it took me around thirty minutes to stumble my way to the battlefield.

The closer I got to where all the lights gathered, the warmer it became. The sounds of battle became louder and louder. And my panic grew bigger and bigger.

_Please be alive, please be alive, _I repeated in my head.

Fearing the enemy would spot me as I approached, I ducked into the forest.

_Okay, Cecilia, battle time. Also known as, stop being pathetic and redeem yourself time. This isn't going to turn out like Cocoyashi. Now, you're an archer. And you're blind. So climb a fucking tree and shoot some arrows, dammit!_

_However…_

I put my arms around one of the nearby trees.

_How the hell am I going to do this? I've never climbed a tree before!_

"First time for everything, I guess," I muttered. Shoving my cane into my back quiver, I grabbed onto a branch and hoisted myself up.

_This is going to be a long and painful climb._

_Well, it's gonna be up to you whether or not it was worth it in the end. _

-CLIFFHANGER-MORE-LIKE-TREEHANGER-TRANSITION-

And here you go! Chapter Eleven in all its glory. A bit short, I'll admit. From now on, I want to type longer chapters! I shan't update until I have at least three thousand words!

Tune in next time to see whether Cecilia kicks some ass from the shadows or fails miserably and die.

Either way, I hope you guys will enjoy it.

Have a nice summer, kids. Thanks again.

-NomSujet


	13. Sickness and Sediero

I stood on the tree branch, legs trembling. Ever so slowly, I sat down on the rough bark.

"Alright, here we go…" I muttered, notching a normal arrow. I took aim at the brown light first. I let go of the string. Unlike the magic arrows, I couldn't see whether or not it had hit. I simply kept notching and shooting at the four enemy lights.

"It's coming from that direction!" I heard someone yell. _Oh shit, _I thought, panicking. Unfortunately, I forgot where I was, and I fell backwards-

-off the branch.

"Gah!" numerous things cut and scraped me on the way down, but I wasted no time simply lying on the ground. I scrambled to my feet and ran. However, I stumbled straight into the clearing.

"Cecilia!" Usopp ran up to me. "Quick, get on Carue and shoot some arrows! I gotta go take care of Luffy!"

I didn't bother asking why; it would've wasted our time. I mounted the giant but lovable duck and notched an arrow. Shooting from a moving target was hard, though, so I simply fired away. It was exhilarating. My adrenaline was through the roof. It was almost kind of…fun.

Soon, I noticed that Carue was running in circles. At once, I remembered what Usopp's plan was. Searching through my quiver, I finally found the one I was looking for.

Let's see, I need a cool name for this…

_Ah hell, I'll sneak in a One Piece reference. _

Before I could do anything, however, the ground in front of us exploded. I was knocked off Carue, and rolled several times before I hit something. I put a hand on it. Wax…

And right below that, a slippery and greasy rope.

"Well, since I'm here!" I jabbed the arrow into the rope and quickly rolled away. I then managed to get on my feet, so I started running as fast as I could away.

_Ace's Arrow. _

The rope burst into flames all at once; I could feel the extreme heat at my back. The giant wax figure fell. Small chunks of wax were flying everywhere, but several large pieces were falling as well.

"Watch out, Cecilia!" Suddenly, out of nowhere, Leo ran up and basically tackled me to the ground. My blood ran cold and my stomach flipped upside down when I heard a sickening crunch in front of me.

Once Nami, Vivi, and Zoro had been freed, they made quick work of the enemies. However…

"GoddAMN THIS IS PAINFUL! FUCK!" Leo shouted out. I crawled over to him.

"Leo? Leo, what happened?" I asked him desperately.

"You were about to be crushed by a piece of wax, that's what!" he yelled at me angrily. "Why are you here? Why didn't you stay on the ship?"

"I was worried about YOU, dipshit!" I retorted. "I thought you were going to get killed!"

"YOU almost got killed! I was doing FINE! Sure, I may have been knocked unconscious and was off to the side but at least they didn't consider me a threat! So they ignored me!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know THAT?"

"Because of you coming here, now MY LEGS ARE BROKEN!"

"You're exaggerating!"

"EXAGERRATING?! CECILIA, BOTH MY LEGS ARE TRAPPED UNDER A LARGE, SOLID, HEAVY PIECE OF WAX. I'M NOT SUPERHUMAN LIKE THESE GUYS! THEY'RE BROKEN! THEY COULDN'T BE ANYTING _BUT _BROKEN!"

I had no reply to that. Soon, Zoro came over to us and silently lifted the piece of wax off Leo.

"We need a doctor," Nami said, also coming over to inspect Leo's legs. "But unfortunately, we don't have one."

"I know," Leo said, gritting his teeth. "Just…somebody please knock me unconscious. And tie some planks to my legs."

Zoro obliged to his first request. A hit to the forehead and he was out like a light.

"I'll go grab some spare wood from Merry," Usopp ran off.

I couldn't help but cry. Warm, salty tears flowed from my eyes in buckets. Snot also came out my nose, but I didn't care enough to wipe it off.

I'm such a fucking IDIOT! I should've stayed on the ship, I should've stayed on the ship, I should've stayed on the motherfucking ship! I'm sorry, Leo, I'm so, so sorry!

I felt a hand on my back.

"It's not your fault," Vivi tried to console me.

"Yes, yes it is! You can't deny it; if I never came here, Leo would've been fine! He wouldn't have had to save my sorry ass! I'm _blind_, why did I ever think I could do _anything _on a battlefield? Goddamit! I'm just a burden to everyone! Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

I pounded on the ground out of frustration. No one else tried to offer any consoling words, because we all knew that what I was lamenting was true. It was so true it honestly hurt my chest. A deep, wrenching pain felt like it was tearing my insides apart.

-TRANSITION-

I sat next to Leo's bedside in the doctor's room aboard the ship. Usopp had tied some planks to both of his legs. We also placed several pillows under his legs for elevation. He still didn't wake up though, even with all the jostling and handling.

I didn't know why I even sat beside him for so long. Was it worry? Or guilt? Probably a mix of both. After a while, I have no idea how long, I retreated into the women's cabin. I did what I usually did when I felt crappy: jump onto my bed, mess around in the blankets until I was exhausted, and then lie there for a couple hours. Normally, though, I would be listening to some music, but I didn't have my mp3 with me.

That was still at home.

_I wonder how everyone is reacting to me and Leo's disappearance, _I mused. _No one at school would care, and Amy and Evangeline…_

_Still, I want to get back to my normal life. _

I missed my classmates. Even though I wasn't considered to be friends with any of them, I still had fond memories with a lot of them.

It was almost halfway through the school year. Everyone's probably looking forward to winter break. And for some of them, it would be the last winter break of their life. Including me.

I rolled over on my back. It made no difference though; all I ever saw was black.

I wish this never happened. I wish I had never come to this world. Why why why why is this happening to me?

_Fuck that guy. Fuck him to hell. _

I thought I had already cried myself dry, but the tears kept on coming. I tried to reason with myself. His legs will heal. I'll get back home. Amy and Evangeline will be fine. The two of us won't die.

It didn't work. It hardly ever did. In times like these, my emotions usually flooded my logic. I knew I shouldn't be crying. I was wasting time and energy. Creating massive floods from your eyes wasn't going to solve anything.

But sometimes you just have to cry, you know?

-TRANSITION-

I avoided seeing Leo when he was awake; I felt so incredibly guilty that whenever I tried, I ended running away. I was afraid of what he was going to say to me.

I've read plenty of books where someone accidentally causes someone else immense pain, and the general consensus for those characters were that they wanted the victim to blame them.

I would've liked to say that, too. I wanted to be able to say, I want Leo to blame me, I don't want to be forgiven for the terrible thing that I've done. However, if I did say that, I would be lying through my teeth. I knew if I went in there to talk with Leo, and he told me 'it wasn't your fault' or 'I don't blame you', I'd be so relieved I'd probably cry.

He'd be lying though. However you see it, from whatever angle you look at it from, it was my fault.

I knew I had to talk to him sooner or later, though, so I wasn't all that surprised when Vivi told me that Leo wanted me to go to him.

So I took a deep breath, and twisted the doorknob. I swear my stomach was doing some sort of jazzercise or _something _because I felt ready to throw up.

"Um…" my voice came out high and squeaky. I cleared my throat. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Sit down," Leo replied calmly.

I sat in the chair beside him, and I looked down towards the floor. Leo sighed heavily.

"The next island is Drum Island. The only doctor there is Dr. Kureha, who lives on top of this giant mountain that Luffy had to climb with Nami and Sanji on his back. Obviously, to get him to carry me as well would be overkill. There is a ropeway that can take us to the top of the mountain, so I was thinking we take that."

I didn't know how to reply. He was acting much too normal. I awkwardly cleared my throat again.

"Er…aren't there like…those rabbits that would attack us before we reach the ropeway? And, uh, if only the two of us go…are you expecting me to…carry you?"

"Yeah, those are some of the problems. We could get Zoro to go with us as well, but I'm not sure if that would mess up the plot or not. So I have a favour to ask of you."

"Hm? Really?"

"Don't think I haven't noticed that you've got your bag, clothes, and archery stuff from home. I need you to go back and get my laptop and the treasure chest style box in my closet. Some clothes and stuff wouldn't hurt either."

"Um, the thing is though, I've tried to go into your room, but it would always be locked." The words came flowing out of my mouth easier now; I was getting used to having a conversation again.

"Well, could you at least try one more time?"

"I'll try, but….I can't guarantee anything."

"That's fine."

I stood up slowly. "Is…is that it?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I turned to leave, but a small part of brain kept screaming at me to mention it. I tried to ignore it, I really did, but it won over me in the end.

"Leo…" I trailed off. "I'm really sorry about…about your legs…"

He sighed again. "If apologies could heal wounds, there'd be no need for doctors."

I had no reply to that, so I stayed silent until he spoke again. "You suck. You really really suck, you know that? You're also really stupid for going onto the battlefield. I'm surprised you even managed to make it there without getting killed by a Baroque agent or being eaten by a dinosaur. You're pretty fucking lucky, Cecilia."

"I know," I replied softly. I'm not sure if Leo even heard me, but he continued speaking.

"But, it's my job to protect you, right? Even if you did stupidly interfered with the battle like a lunatic, you still saved Zoro, Nami, and Vivi by setting that rope on fire. My legs aren't that big of a deal. I'm sure they'll fix themselves. If I hadn't tackled you, you'd probably be dead. And that would be the worst thing in the world."

"So, Cecil, dude, quit worrying or being all guilt-ridden about it, aight?" I could hear his smirk in his words. "A little pain is nothing. I'll manage."

I paused for a moment, letting his words sink in.

"T-Thank you…" I finally. "Thanks, Leo."

I left the room then, closing the door behind me.

-TRANSITION-

I lay awake in my bed. I had been going into and out of sleep much more often these days, in order to visit Derek. And now, when I actually wanted to sleep, I couldn't. And counting sheep or warm milk just wasn't going to cut it.

Nami was awake too, working on some map of hers. When I sat up in my bed, she muttered, "Couldn't sleep?"

"No," I replied, sighing.

"Worried about Leo?"

"No, er, well, yes, but not so worried that I can't sleep. It's just that my sleep schedule is so messed up now."

She chuckled. "Hah, yeah. I remember you used to sleep all over the ship. Just like Zoro."

"Well, that was so I could enter the uh, Lacriyon world, and train with Derek."

"The _what _world? And who's Derek, your boyfriend?" The sound of her pen scritching on paper stopped.

"...it's a long story," I settled for the cliché reply.

"Well, it's going to be a long night. Wait here, I'll get some coffee for the both of us."

"Could you make that a hot chocolate? My brother's the coffee addict, not me."

"Alright, alright, Cecil. Be right back."

I lifted the blankets off of me and stretched. Vivi also stirred in her bed.

"Mm, is there something wrong?" she asked, yawning.

"Oh, sorry to wake you," I said sheepishly.

"It's okay," she replied. "You know, the two of us haven't really talked."

"Yeah, that's true, ahaha..." I laughed nervously. Small talk was not my forte.

"It was very brave of you to go into the battle like that."

"That...that was pretty stupid of me, actually."

She giggled. "That too. But you know, you still helped out. So don't be so harsh on yourself, alright?"

I didn't reply. We sat in a pseudo-awkward silence for a long time. Which was strange, because Nami should've returned by then.

Suddenly, I heard a loud thud. It was accompanied by the sound of glass breaking.

"Was that Nami?" Vivi quickly stood up. I grabbed my cane, and the two of us hurried into the kitchen.

"Nami! Are you okay?" the princess's worry was evident.

"What? What is it?" Nami's light was fainter than usual, and she seemed to be...lying on the ground?

"No, Cecil! There're glass shards everywhere, so don't come near!" Vivi lifted up Nami. "Help me get her to the doctor's office!"

"Alright," I dropped my cane and reached for Nami's arm. I slung it over my shoulder, and the three of us hobbled to the office.

"W-What is it?" Leo woke up on his bed. By now, the boys had also woken up, and were pushing their way inside the room.

"What's wrong with Nami-swan?" Sanji asked. We laid her on a bed.

"Oh my...her forehead's very hot! Somebody get me the thermometer!" Vivi commanded. "Nami? Nami, how do you feel?"

"Ugh...I can't really concentrate on anything...and I feel weak..." the navigator managed to say.

"Does she have a cold?" I asked.

"What's a cold?" Luffy asked.

"Here's the thermometer!" Sanji interjected.

"Thank you," Vivi said. "I also need a couple of cold towels."

"On it!" Usopp ran off into the bathroom.

"This doesn't make any sense; we weren't anywhere cold or anything. It hasn't snowed, either," I said.

"Then it might not be a cold. It could be a virus," the thermometer beeped. "Oh my god, your temperature is through the roof, Nami! Seriously, does anyone on this ship have _any _medical experience?"

"Nope."

"I've never even caught a cold before."

"WHAT'S A COLD?"

"If we don't get to an island soon..." Vivi trailed off.

"IS NAMI GOING TO DIE?!" Sanji's panicked voice yelled.

"NOOOOO NAAAAMIIIII!" Luffy shouted. "I PROMISE I'LL KICK THIS COLD'S ASS! NAAAMIII!"

"Shut up, all of you!" Leo yelled. "The only one who can defeat the cold is Nami!"

"I'LL GET YOU SOME MEAT! AND SOME OF ZORO'S SPECIAL BOOZE THAT HE KEEPS UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS IN THE CLOSET!"

"YOU'D BETTER NOT TOUCH THAT!" Zoro shouted.

"Oh Nami-swan, I'll make you the best and most healthy food in the world, and I'll be by your bedside every hour anything you need you can count on me oh Naaaaaamiiiii-swaaan!" Sanji started bawling.

"EVERYONE OUT!" Vivi shouted forcefully, surprising all of us. The guys all reluctantly left, and Usopp dropped off the towels before leaving as well.

"This is really worrisome, huh?" I said quietly.

"Yes. But this just means we have to get to Drum even faster," Vivi replied.

"No...Alasbasta..." Nami insisted.

"You know that's out of the question! It's not just you who's sick, Leo also needs a doctor as well! If we just leave his legs to heal by themselves, they could heal up in the wrong places, and his legs might become deformed! He wouldn't be able to walk ever again!" Vivi half-whispered, half-shouted.

Nami fell silent, knowing she wouldn't win this argument.

"You don't need to worry about Alabasta, alright?" Vivi continued, her voice full of reassurance. "Your main goal right now is to recover from this cold."

"How long is it 'til we get to Drum Island?" I asked.

"Should be around one or two days. But...with Nami in bed..." she sighed. "Well, I'll try my best, but I'm nowhere near as good of a navigator as Nami."

"I'm sorry I can't help out more..." I said.

"It's okay. I'm sure you're already doing your best." I could hear the winning smile in her voice.

_Wow, she's going to be a great queen..._

-TRANSITION-

"So much drama tonight," Derek's voice awoke me. When I opened my eyes, I saw the familiar ceiling of my bedroom. I sat up in my bed.

"Derek, I need to get into my brother's room," I spared him the greetings. "I've tried before, but it was always locked."

"It was locked because he locked it. Leo, that is. His room is like his mind, and your room is yours. But now he's given you permission to enter, so you can."

I stood up and took a look around. My room was just as left it, save for one small detail.

"Hey, when you said the police came to investigate, did they take my note, too?"

"Hm? Oh, no, that was taken by some guy."

"What?!" I turned around to stare at him. "Who?! Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"You never asked! I thought it was just some friend of yours or something!" Derek put up his hands in defence. I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

"Describe him!" I demanded.

_It couldn't be him, it definitely isn't, he's not even in this province..._

"He had black hair that was really long, for a guy anyway. He had it tied in a low ponytail and over his shoulder. He also had a goatee. And, uh, he was kind of buff, but not really...that's about all I remember."

"Fuck!" I yelled, releasing him. "God...DAMN!"

"Who is he?" Derek asked. "Why are you so...mad?"

"_He's _the worst guy on the planet. A total son of a bitch."

"Can I have a name?"

I sighed, and muttered,

"Andy Sediero."


	14. Up the Mountain They Go

"Andy...Sediero...now where have I heard that name before?" Derek rested his chin in his hands. "But why are you so angry with him? What, did he cheat on you? Released some racy pics all over school?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I huffed, walking across the hall to my brother's room.

"Aw, come on! You've sparked my interest, you can't just leave me hanging!" he followed me, pouting and whining. I tried the doorknob. Unlike previous attempts, this time it rotated smoothly, and I opened the door.

Leo's room was exactly how I remembered it. Two ginormous bookshelves lined two of his walls. One was dedicated to games and consoles, while the other was for his books and manga. His bed and desk were in the middle of the room. On his desk lay his laptop with the cracked screen (he once brought it to school without permission and ended up dropping it onto the floor. Our parents grounded him for _weeks_) and his drawing...tablet...thing.

During summer vacation, Leo would always lock himself in his room with a box of cereal and an entire jug of black coffee. Whenever I demanded to know what he was doing, he would always tell me he was drawing 'doujinshi' or something on his computer with the tablet. And whenever I asked him what a doujinshi was he'd get this really really creepy smile on his face and then pat me on the head like I was five! He was truly infuriating sometimes.

I grabbed his old school backpack and emptied it. It had been over a year since Leo graduated from high school, and yet his bag was _still _filled with twelfth grade textbooks and binders! It was obvious he just threw the thing into the closet the minute he got home and forgot all about it.

I stuffed the bag full with clothing, and then looked at the daunting bookshelf.

_One Piece...One Piece..._I scanned over all the books quickly, but I couldn't find the manga series my brother loved so dearly. I blinked a few times to clear my eyes, and then forced myself to look very carefully through all the titles.

Derek was also looking through the bookcase, but not to help me. Instead, he pulled out a photo album and started flipping through it.

"Hey, it's you as a newborn! Wow, you were one ugly baby."

I hit him square in the head, and then back to my search. Suddenly, a colourful spine caught my attention.

"Nep Ece? What the?" I pulled the book out. On the cover were three people; a black-haired guy in a straw hat, a guy with green hair, and a girl with orange hair, of all things! They were drawn in a small boat, and they looked like they were having the time of their life.

I looked closer at the title. And then the realization hit me like a Frisbee in Ultimate season. The Jolly Roger was also an 'O', and the small figure was an 'I'!

"One Piece! I found it!" I quickly looked up at the other books. Sure enough, the entire shelf and the next were filled with One Piece, from volume 1 all the way to volume 62! "Wooooaaaah...this is one heck of a long story..."

I looked back down at the three people. And that's when I also realized with a start that they were Luffy, Zoro, and Nami!

"He has green hair?!" I exclaimed. "What the fuck?"

I grabbed some more volumes and sat down on the carpeted floor, next to Derek. I flipped through the books until I also found Usopp, Sanji, and Vivi.

"So this is what they look like..." I muttered. They weren't at all like I had imagined, but then again, why would I ever think that anyone had natural orange or blue hair? Derek tapped me on the shoulder. I turned my head towards him. He pointed at a photo in the album he took.

"Is this Andy?" he asked. I leaned in to get a better look at the picture. It was my brother and Andy, standing with their arms around each other's shoulders. They had huge smiles on both their faces, and they were dressed in graduation robes.

My eye twitched. "Yes," I gave a brief answer and went back to the One Piece manga.

"So him and your bro were best buds, huh?" Derek chirped cheerfully. "And then you and him went out, but he broke your heart or something? And now you hate him? That's it, isn't it? Right? Right?"

"Agh, would you please shut up?!" I snapped at him. "What part of I don't want to fucking talk about it do you not understand?!"

"_Someone's _on their cycle," Derek muttered bitterly. "Hmph, even if you don't tell me now all I have to do is go through your memory files and dig it out."

My head jerked up at this new information. I watched as Derek's face slowly contorted into one of 'oh shit'.

"What do you mean...go through my memories...?" I said slowly and menacingly.

"Er, uh, that was just a figure of speech!" he raised his hands in defence. I grabbed him by the shirt.

"Tell me _NOW, _Derek! Stop avoiding the topic, dammit! WHAT ARE LACRIYONS? WHAT ARE _YOU?_"

Unfortunately, before I could receive an answer to the question I had to thinking about for _weeks, _my vision faded into black suddenly and without warning. I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake.

I was lying in bed again, only this time it was in the women's cabin on the Strawhat ship. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Vivi's sky-blue light.

"Good morning, Cecilia-san. We're almost at Drum."

I yawned, stretched, and reluctantly pulled back the covers. The sharp cold air hit me right away. It was familiar, too, in a sense, considering the winters in Winnipeg.

"Breakfast will be ready soon, alright?" Vivi informed me before leaving.

I sighed, frustrated and concerned. I wasn't sure if I should tell Leo about Andy, and my mind agonized over the decision during breakfast. Afterwards, I headed to the infirmary to give Leo the goods.

"Sorry I couldn't bring all of the volumes, I was woken up before I could get to them," I apologized as I handed Leo his backpack.

"It's fine, don't worry. You got most of Drum, so I think I'll be good. You think you can bring my laptop next time?"

"Um, hello? We're like in what, the seventeenth century? I really don't think there are high-speed wi-fi hotspots anywhere, let alone in the middle of the ocean. Besides, you'd have to explain the damn thing to anyone who sees it."

"Ah, it was a long shot anyway. Thanks, C."

I sighed, and sat down on the chair beside the bed.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked. I could hear the concern in his voice. "You're assuming your sulky posture."

Sighing again, even more heavily this time, I fidgeted in the seat. The two of us stayed silent. Obviously, he was waiting for me to begin speaking. But honestly, I didn't even know how to begin. Hell, I didn't even know whether or not I should tell Leo!

_Then again, it's not like he'll ever find his way into this world, _I reassured myself. _And Leo has every right to know._

"Andy broke into our house again," I said very quietly. I could barely even hear _myself, _but I knew Leo would. His ears always perked up at the sound of Andy's name.

It was silent in the infirmary at again. The air felt heavy; I had a hard time breathing.

"...fuck..." Leo muttered. I heard the sound of him lying back in bed with a thump. "We changed the locks, right? Just a couple months ago! And isn't he in some art school in Ontario?"

"Not anymore, apparently," I said sadly.

"How do you know he was there? Did you see him? Oh god, did you talk to him?" Now Leo sounded panicked, which was rare for him. I wanted to panic too, but I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

"Derek told me."

"And who exactly is Derek? You never really explained all this to me, you know."

"Derek is a Lacriyon."

"But those guys are trying to kill us!"

"He's one of the good ones, I guess. Then again, I'm not quite sure. But Lacriyons are kinda like humans, so there are bound to be good and bad ones, right? Either way, whenever I dream-travel back home, he's there. Actually, the house and school that I dreamed about were probably illusions. Because I couldn't go into your room, which Derek said was sort of like your mind. I could last night because you allowed me to. However, I can make a physical change in those...illusion places, so I guess that means they reflect the real world."

By now I was thinking as I was speaking to Leo, trying to piece all my current information together.

"Like, once I found Amy and Evangeline collapsed in my room. I put them on my bed, and the next time, they were gone. I also left a note explaining out situation once, but now that's gone too. I thought it was taken in the police investigation, but...Derek told me it was guy who looked liked Andy."

"And Derek...well, sometimes I can only hear his voice in my head, sometimes he appears in this world, and I can only see his light, which is white, by the way, just like yours. And then I can see everything normally in the dream world. So I'm assuming all Lacriyons are like this. They can...travel...between worlds...and the British guy...was also a Lacriyon who sent us here for some reason..."

"Derek did say something weird though...he asked about Andy, and when I wouldn't tell him, he said he could just 'sift through my memories' until he knew. I don't have an explanation for that one, though..."

"So Sediero is back in Winnipeg, eh? And the first fucking thing he does is break into our house. Jesus, I don't know how he does it," Leo lamented. "You say you left a note? And he took it?"

I nodded. "In it I explained that the two of us were in the One Piece world. So either he believes me and is trying to get here, or he doesn't believe me and is looking for us in the real world."

"If it's you, you could tell him the Earth was square and he'd write up a five thousand word essay explaining that it is," my brother scoffed. "But I guess we're safe for now. There's no way he'd be able to get here. Hell, if that were even possible, I would've escaped to here five years ago."

"It is possible, Leo! That's why I'm worried!" I insisted. "After all, _we're _here, right? What's to say some Lacriyon won't send him our way?"

He was silent for a moment. "Well, now it's pretty obvious we need to even out the playing field. Try and coax more information out of this Derek guy. I don't care how you do it, begging, bribing, seduct-"

I swiftly karate-chopped Leo's light before he could finish his sentence. Apparently I had hit him in the chest, as I heard him wheezing afterwards.

"I'll do what I can, alright? And we're almost in Drum, so put on your parka."

"Eh? But it makes me look fat!"

"Both your legs are broken and the two of us are somehow supposed to make it up a mountain; I will _not _have you catch a cold on top of that."

Leo laughed at this. "How strange for the younger to be taking care of the elder."

"We take care of each other," I stood up and leaned over him. Using my hands to guide me in absence of my eyes, I managed to kiss his forehead. In turn, Leo lightly pecked mine.

It was a small tradition our family had. My mom used it as a way to calm us down when we were little, and eventually we were all doing it. It was comforting in hectic times such as now.

"I told you we'd get back to the real world eventually, right?" Leo said softly. "And when we do, I'll protect you from Sediero, too. Don't worry about it, C. Leave everything up to me."

-TRANSITION-

After some mild gunfire, we somehow made it onto the island. I had personally dressed Leo in his giant parka and now he was being pulled along on a makeshift sled Usopp had built. We were following a guy named Dalton, who introduced himself as a former captain of the guards. As we headed into town, he told us the history of Drum.

How horrible for a king to take away doctors from the people! Honestly, how could anyone be that selfish? Fortunately, there was still one last doctor on the island, and that's where we needed to head.

"She lives in a castle? On top of a mountain?" Usopp exclaimed at the news Dalton had presented. "You're kidding!"

"Not at all, I'm afraid," Dalton sighed. "All we can do is wait for her to come to the village."

While the others fussed over the situation, Leo and I had a quiet discussion of our own.

"Alright, so everyone is pretty much busy during this whole arc. Which is to be expected, you can't have one of your characters lazing around doing nothing, after all," Leo whispered into my ear. "So that means we can't have anyone from the Strawhats come with us."

"The trip will be virtually impossible by ourselves, though!"

"Calm down, I specifically said, _from the Strawhats_," he replied. "Soooooo...how good is this Derek guy? At fighting, I mean."

His words stunned me for a second. "Oh god, you can't be serious."

"Deadly. He's the only choice we have the moment. And besides, if you trust him, then I will too."

_No no no, that's not the problem, big brother, _I thought. _If you two meet, you're either gonna hate each other 'til the end of time or love each other so much that you'll have matching BFFL gravestones._

I sighed. "Fine, I'll see if I can ask him. Gimme a sec."

Closing my eyes, I tried to block out all the noise and voices around me.

_Derek?_ _You there?_

There was no reply for a long time, and I when I was just starting to open my eyes, I heard his voice.

_Heeeeeellloooooo!_

_I need you to do a favour for me. _

_I'm already outside. _

"Hey, Cecil!" Luffy's voice interrupted my conversation.

"Oh, uh, yeah, what is it?"

"Is it alright if Luffy and Sanji take Nami up the mountain first? Without Leo, I mean. Since Nami's fever is getting worse and worse..." Vivi explained.

"Well, you'll have to ask Leo, not me," I replied. "How about it, Leo?"

"Sure, sure, I'll be fine," he said cheerfully.

"Well then, I'm in your hands, Captain," Nami's weak voice said. My eyebrows furrowed in worry when I looked at her. Her light-or rather, her soul-was the dimmest I had ever seen it. I could barely make out the orange. She was literally on the verge of death.

I shook my head free of the morbid thoughts. She'll be fine, Luffy and Sanji will definitely get her to Dr. Kureha.

After the trio headed out, Leo piped up and babbled something about wanting to take a look outside.

"Me and C will be right back," he promised.

"Oi, oi, are you sure you two will be fine by yourselves?" Usopp asked.

"It's okay, I'm not as helpless as you think, you know," I said, standing up. "Like Leo said, we'll be back before you know it."

"Alright then..." Vivi said reluctantly.

Grabbing the rope tied to Leo's sled, I pulled him outside.

"Derek says he's already here..." I looked around for any white lights.

"What does he look like?" Leo asked.

"Um...he has one of his eyes sewed shut. With a tattoo on the eyelid."

"Oh _god_, that must've been painful. Hey, is that even possible?"

I shrugged. Suddenly, some wool covered my eyes.

"Lookin' fer me?" said the most pretentious cockney accent I had ever heard.

"Drop the accent, Derek," I removed his hands from my face and turned around.

"Hey," Leo greeted.

"Hey," Derek replied.

It was silent for a second. I think they were sizing each other up in that time, although I can't be sure. Apparently they had approved of each other, and Leo broke the ice.

"So how good are you at bodyguarding?"

"Eh, good enough, I suppose. Hey, Cecil, gimme the arrows and bow."

"Do you want the chest guard and all that other stuff too?" I asked as I handed the aforementioned items over to him.

"Nah, I'll be fine. Been doing this for years," he said. "Hmmm...so you have been waxing the bow and string, eh? Nice, nice."

"I _did _take archery lessons once upon a time, you know," I puffed my chest with pride. "I still have everything."

"Oh really? Hmmmm...alright, let's go. Cecil, you'll have to pull Leo all the way there, is that okay? I'll have my hands full dealing with the wild animals and whatever. Think you can handle it?"

"Yeah. I will." I was very determined to. All of this was my fault in the first place, so I wanted to help out in whatever way I could. I hated the feeling of helplessness.

"Let's go on an ADVENTURE!" Derek cheered, no doubt gaining the looks of many citizens. Thankfully I couldn't see the stares and glares, but I was embarrassed nonetheless.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go..." I pushed him forward.

"On a grand aaaaadveeenture!" Derek sang tunelessly. He pronounced 'adventure' strangely; it sounded like 'ad-ven-tciah', extra emphasis on the 'ciah'.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Leo snickered behind me.

"I like this guy already," he said.

-TRANSITION-

As we hiked uphill, Derek shot arrows at anyone or anything that attacked. Not the real ones though, just some magical ones, that inflicted things like sleep or paralysis.

He was pretty darn good. Leagues better than me, for sure. Hell, he kept up a lively conversation with Leo the whole time while shooting! He never even missed a target, no matter how fast they moved.

Once there was a pause in their conversation, however, I interrupted.

"So what is a Lacriyon?" I demanded. "And there's no getting outta this one, Derek."

He sighed audibly and overdramatically. "We're nothing special, really."

"Nothing special? Do you know how many of you have tried to kill me? With magic powers? You gave me magic arrows, for god's sake! And you say you aren't 'special'?"

"Weeeeeeeeell, promise me you'll believe me, alright? None of that 'this is bullshit' bullshit."

"Dude, I'm dragging my brother up to a mountain in a fictional world because he broke both legs protecting me from a giant piece of wax. You could tell me the sky is bright magenta and I would believe you."

"Alright, alright," he sighed again. "How should I say this...ah..."

The three of us trekked onwards in silence for a few moments. After awhile, Derek had apparently collected his thoughts and was ready to speak.

"We...are personifications of human emotion."

"Bullshit," Leo and I said at the same time.

"Hey! You said you wouldn't do that!"

"Sorry, that was just our automatic response," Leo apologized.

"Che. Anyways, it's true. Lacriyons are born with people. Lacriyons born from weak emotions die off, while ones born from strong emotions live on."

"But humans feel a wide range of feelings all through their life," I argued.

"Hahaha, it's cute how you humans think you're _so complex_. Lemme give you an example. Take a psychopathic serial killer. They usually had a bad childhood and stuff like that, right? So the Lacriyons happiness and love die away, while loneliness and eventually, rage, grow stronger. If the guy reforms, and becomes good-hearted and stuff, then happiness and love will be reborn, and the bad stuff will die."

"So it's always a fluid sort of thing. Life and death," I mused. "Then what are you?"

"Ah, you see, I'm a bit different. I'm the Lacriyon of family ties. The Daring family bond, I guess. You people define it as DNA or blood, but there is a spiritual connection. It's especially strong in twins, since their lives began in the same place at the same time. Well, don't quote me on that. We Lacriyons aren't really sure of what we are either. So for me, I watch over every generation of the family until everyone dies off."

"So...you have access to all our memories? And private thoughts?"

"They're like files. All organized and put away in cabinets. I couldn't be bothered to go through all of them, you know. Ah, here we are. The ropeway."

We entered the wooden box, and Derek started it up. It started its slow ascent.

"This...this is pretty hard to take in, you know..." Leo muttered.

"Eh, you'll get used to it. So all the places you've been going to when you sleep, Cecil, are the real world. Only you're there spiritually. You can make a small impact on your world during those times, such as taking things or leaving notes."

"But how? Where'd you guys come from? Are you saying all the stuff about souls and whatever is true?" Leo questioned.

"Well you guys can't explain how or where the human race came either, right?"

"This isn't scientific at all."

"Just because you don't understand how something works, doesn't mean it's fake or unscientific. And who said everything had to apply to science? Hell, we could be some kind of new species! A new type of science. Besides, if you really think about it, nothing makes scientific sense."

I raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh really? Care to give an example?"

"Why to cells reproduce? Why do they split in half?"

"In order to create more of them, obviously. This is like grade nine science."

"But why create more?"

"So the organism lives on."

"But why do we live?"

He shocked us silent with that one.

"You see? We could debate on and on about why we exist and whether or not God is real and if he is did he put us here and where did God come from. The simple explanation is that there is no reason. All we know is that we are here. Humans are here. Lacriyons are here. And we've always been here. Some humans even met us in the past, although they mistook us for either an angel, a devil, or a mental illness."

"Okaaaaaay...I think I'm starting to get a bit of this..." I said slowly.

"Alright, I'll bite," Leo said. "So those other guys are Lacriyons too? Of what, though? And whose?"

"Hell if I know, man."

The ropeway came to a shuddering stop. Derek opened the door, and helped me pull Leo out. Up on the mountain, the winds were harsher and much colder. I shivered, and tightened my scarf.

"Is that a good enough explanation for ya? Did I blow your mind?" Derek asked, handing back my archery equipment. "If so, then you better tell me about this Andy guy."

"Hey, if you've been around our entire lives, then you should know already!" I complained.

"Do you think I spent every waking moment of my life watching over yours? I've got my own life too, you know. So no, I don't. Anyways, I gotta go, can't have anyone see me. Catch you on the flip side, Cecil. Literally."

And then he was gone. It was just Leo and I standing on a mountain.

"Hey, you might wanna lower the ropeway again. So the others can use it later," Leo said.

"Fine, fine..." I grumbled. I didn't want to spend any more time outside, but I knew Leo was right. With his voice guiding me, I restarted the mechanism and sent the box back down.

"The castle is right in front of us," he informed me as I grabbed the rope again. I nodded, and started trekking though the snow. Suddenly, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Three lights, red, blue, and orange.

However, all three of them were so incredibly faint that I had to stare at them intently for a moment to make sure that they _were _lights in the first place.

"Oh god..._is that Luffy, Sanji, and Nami?_" I practically shrieked. Without waiting for Leo's answer, I dropped the rope and rushed over.

"CECILIA THERE IS A CLIFF THERE! LET LUFFY CLIMB UP, HE'LL BE FINE!" Leo shouted after me. I ignored him, although I did slow down considerably. I started crawling forward until I felt the cliff edge. The three lights were right below me.

"LUFFY! Grab my hand!" I reached down as far as I dared. However, the hand I was expecting never entered mine. "LUFFY!" I pleaded.

_Come on come on come on! _My brain screamed, panicked. _I hate this! I wish I could see! Dammit dammit dammit Luffy grab my fucking hand!_

At this point I wasn't sure what I was thinking and what I was shouting. All my other senses were being overwhelmed with the wind and cold and everything else without my eyes to connect everything together.

Suddenly, for a very, very brief moment, I could swear I saw a hand. It might have been my imagination-honestly, it probably was-but I reached for it right away.

And lo and behold, I made contact.

I grabbed onto Luffy's arm with both hands. Wait- was he not wearing a jacket?! I could feel his rubbery skin under my gloves. I leaned back and pulled with all my might, but all I did was stretch his arm! I reached down again and grabbed wildly; this time I managed to grab a fistful of his shirt. I threw myself backwards, and then tried to stand up. Finally, _finally, _I managed to drag Luffy and the others safely onto the mountain.

I scrambled to my feet and ran back to where I came.

"Where's the castle?!" I yelled hurriedly.

"To your left!" I heard Leo shout back. I turned there and kept running until I felt my feet hit concrete. I reached forward to pound on the door, but apparently there wasn't one. So I shouted.

"HELLO? PLEASE, SOMEBODY, HELP! ALL MY FRIENDS HAVE COLLAPSED ON THE MOUNTAIN AND I CAN'T MOVE THEM BY MYSELF I THINK LUFFY HAS FROSTBITE I MEAN THE SON OF A BITCH WASN'T EVEN WEARING A JACKET FOR GOD'S SAKE!" I ranted and raved in one long run-on sentence until something came into my field of vision.

A pink light. Not a hot pink type of pink. It was softer, lighter. I nearly cried with relief. Actually, I think I was crying. However, I still wasn't sure if the pink one was friend or foe. And even though I absolutely despised to think of them as an enemy, I still kept one hand on my bow just in case.

"I'll take it from here," said the voice. It was high-pitched and childish, and was almost like a woman's voice. But I knew it was a he. It was Chopper.

He put a hand on my shoulder, and then ran off.

I sank to the ground and leaned against the wall. I let my head drop, and my eyes shut closed.

-TRANSITION-

Wooooooo such a long chapter for once! Hopefully I can keep this up, though. :P

Soooooo I was thinking of maaaaybe opening up a tumblr ask blog for Cecilia, or Leo, or both, or any of my OCs, really. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a blog where you guys can send in questions for that character and I'll answer them as that character with drawn responses.

I'm a decent artist, I suppose, but that isn't the main problem. I just don't wanna open one and then have absolutely no questions or anything.

So once again, I'd like for your guys' opinion! What do you think? Should I start one? If so, then for who?

And who knows, you _might _just get some extra _interesting information_ if you ask the right questions. ;)

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.

-NomSujet


	15. Rest Awhile

I think I collapsed after that ordeal. Or at least, fell asleep. When I woke up, I was lying in a bed. The air smelled fresh and clean with a hint of medicine mixed into it. I sat up, but stopped when I felt the coldness in the air as well. I quickly retreated back under the blanket with a flop.

I was vaguely aware of the footsteps in the room.

"Are you awake?" the childish voice asked kindly. Turning over, I saw the pink light from before. I sat up again.

"Yeah. How are the others?"

He set something down. "They'll be fine, don't you worry. But they're really reckless, you know! Three of them were close to death!"

"What about the guy with the broken legs? He's my brother."

"Ah...he should be fine as well. Both his legs were broken in numerous places, but as long I make sure they heal up correctly, they should be fine. He'll probably be in casts for a long while, and even after they come off, he'll basically need to learn how to walk again."

My heart dropped heavily into my stomach. I sighed, feeling absolutely defeated.

_This is all your fault, Cecilia, _I berated myself. _Look at all the trouble you've caused! For Leo, for all the Strawhats, for everyone back home..._

I closed my eyes, and willed myself to think about other things.

"So, um, what's your name?" I asked the doctor.

"T-Tony Tony Chopper!" he stammered.

"Cecilia Daring," I tried to smile. "How old are you? You sound like you're ten."

"I'm fifteen, thank you very much!" he huffed, his voice positively squeaking at the end. "Um, you're blind, right?"

"Ah, I guess that was pretty obvious, huh?" I reached up to my face, only to find that my sunglasses were gone.

"Oh, those broke," there was a sound of a chair scraping against the floor. "Um...do you mind if I examine your eyes?"

_Right, they were black. I forgot about that. _

"Go ahead." I faced him and opened up my eyes wide. He used one of his hands to spread open my right eye. The hand was large, but it was smooth to the touch.

_Hands of a doctor? Or maybe apprentice, he's only fifteen._

_But damn, he's younger than me and he already has a future. I'm jealous._

"So are you completely blind or can you see shapes and colors?" he asked.

"Completely blind. All I see is black." I omitted the part about the souls.

"Eh? But you helped pull your friends up the mountain right?"

"Ahaha, I was just lucky I guess," I forced a laugh. I really didn't want to explain the whole lights thing. I still couldn't make heads or tails of it myself.

"Hmm...okay...do you see this light?"

"No...but I can sort of feel the heat."

"Your eyes are very strange...I've never read of anything like this...did you have an accident? Or were you born like this? Do you have any disorders or diseases? What's your family health history?"

Chopper continued to barrage me with questions when he suddenly stopped. And that's when I noticed Nami's light.

It was faint, but it was there. At least it wasn't threatening to fade away at any moment.

"Nami? You okay?" I whispered.

"Hm? Cecil?" she whispered back. "What are you doing here?"

Feeling immensely relieved, I got out of bed quickly, although Chopper tried to stop me. I kneeled next to Nami's bed.

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"Eh...not my best, but I'll live," I had a feeling she smiled. "What about the others?"

"They'll be okay too. At least, that's what he says," I pointed a thumb behind me. "Tony Tony Chopper." There was a long pause, as if she was examining him from head to toe.

"A...tanuki?" she questioned.

"A what?" I questioned as well.

"You know, a tanuki. A racoon-dog type thing."

"Hey, you shouldn't insult your doctor!" I scolded mildly.

"But seriously, he is! Look- oh wait."

"Yeah. _Yeah._ Well, I'm glad you're okay, Nami."

"You too, Cecil. Wow, your eyes are really freaky up close."

I backed away quickly, pretending to be incredibly offended. "How _dare _thee mock me so cruelly?" I put a hand to my forehead and posed dramatically. "A curse on thee! Nay, thy whole family!"

Nami laughed, and clapped her hands at my display. I smiled inwardly, happy that I could cheer her up a little.

"Alright, that's enough," Chopper's voice took on a stern tone. "You were the one closest to death, you know! You need more rest!"

"Yes, yes, Doctor Chopper," Nami said sarcastically.

There was a short pause, and then Chopper shouted out, "Don't call me that you bitch! I'm totally not happy just because you called me that! Bitch! Asshole!"

"He looks happy," Nami commented.

"Yeah he sounds like it too," I replied.

"So you get some rest!" Chopper said. "Um, Daring-san, would you like to see your brother?"

"Call me Cecilia. And yeah, that'd be awesome!" I reached for my cane out of habit, but then I realized I had left it on the ship.

"Here, I'll take you there," Chopper took my hand in his and led me out of the room.

"So...you live in a castle? Pretty sweet," I tried to make small talk.

"Well, it gets a little lonely sometimes, since this place is so big. But I have Doctorine, so it's not all that bad!"

"Doctorine?"

"She's my mentor, and the only doctor on the island."

"Cool, cool," I replied lamely. I was never good at generic conversation. "So, uh, it must get pretty cold, eh? What with it being winter all year round and you probably don't have any heating in this place huh?"

"Heating? Do you mean fireplaces?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, those." _Remember, Cecilia. This is like the 17__th__ century or something. Be careful what you say._

"We have them, but we're usually too busy to tend to them. Besides, I don't ever really get cold."

"Really? What do you mean?"

I felt him tense up. "Oh, we're here! Your brother's in this room. He was awake when I left, so I think you'll be able to talk to him."

The door creaked when Chopper opened it.

"Yo, C!" Leo greeted me cheerfully. I rushed over to him, not caring about the things I bumped into (although I probably should have; it's not like I can tell if a chair has a vial of precious and ancient medicine placed on it or not).

I threw my arms around his neck.

"Woah, is it a leap year or what?" he joked at first. But then he also wrapped his arms around me, patting me firmly on the back. "You did good, little sister."

"Well. I did well."

"Screw grammar."

We hugged for awhile. It was nice and comforting to feel his heat, and I honestly didn't want to let go. I wondered why I didn't hug Leo more often.

"You know, the best part about hugging girls is the fact that you can feel their jugs against you. But you kinda fall short in that category, sis."

Oh yeah. He was a total douchebag who revered in ruining perfectly good family-friendly moods.

"Fuck you," I muttered as I pulled away. "So? How're your legs?"

"Fantastic, go ahead and sign me up for that gymnastics competition, I think I'll wow the judges with a midair splits."

"Well, you're going to be okay," I said.

"Of course, I've got the two best doctors in Drum!"

"The only two doctors in Drum."

"Details, schmetails."

"I...I'll leave you two to talk," Chopper left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Oh yeah, Nami called Chopper a tanuki earlier. What does that mean?"

"Hm? Oh! Ooooooooooh! I never told you, did I?" there was a familiar mischievous tone in Leo's voice.

"Tell me what?" I asked him.

"Oh...you'll find out eventually..."

"So why not tell me now?"

"It's more entertaining this way! And besides," his voice became serious. "I think Chopper could benefit from having a heart-to-heart with you. To the rest of us, his...special trait is pretty damn obvious. And he's experienced plenty of heartache because of it. But you can't see! So do you see what I mean? Pun intended."

"Yeah..." I said after a moment's hesitation. "I guess. So if I find out, it's best if I hear it from him, right?"

"Exactimundo, sister dear."

We chatted on for awhile, when someone suddenly burst open the door. I whipped around too be greeted with Luffy and Sanji.

"Leo! Cecil!" Luffy exclaimed happily. "Hey, why are you two doing here?"

"Leo!" Sanji yelled. "Did you make your little sister pull you up the mountain?! How dare you?!"

"No, no, dude, it's not like that! We got a friend of ours to help us along the way. And we got up by ropeway. Sooooooo no climbing."

"Um...should you guys be up?" I asked.

"Aaaaaaaw Cecilia-chan is so cute when she's worried!" Sanji said. He continued to ramble on about my apparently long list of virtues.

"Early morning, dazed eyes, an accidental snatching..." Leo trailed off.

Sanji stopped midsentence. Speaking through gritted teeth (I could almost hear them clashing together), he said, "Shut up Leo, that was just that one time."

Leo and Luffy laughed. "Oh yeah, so this one time San-" Leo started to explain before Sanji shut him up with some form of violence.

"No. _NO._" Sanji said firmly.

"OH! Sanji, we need to go catch the meat! THE MEAT, SANJI, THE MEAT!" Luffy exclaimed.

"You'd better not tell Cecilia-chan, you shithead!" Sanji yelled as the two of them ran away.

"Wow..." I said after they left. "I didn't realise you were so close with them."

"That's rich, coming from Miss Popular," Leo drawled. "Remember your master plan scheming days? Man, you were hilarious back then."

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" I retorted.

I think I've mentioned it before, but I was the most popular girl at school. All because of my Master Plan, my life's single most greatest accomplishment.

Leo laughed at me when I laid out the details for him. But it worked. A few calculated actions here, and few nice gestures there, and I was on my way to stardom.

That got me thinking.

I hadn't thought of my Master Plan in ages. Especially not since coming to the One Piece world. I wonder how my reputation was now...

"Seriously, I never understood why you were so...so...passionate about popularity. Like, I get it, teen girls like attention, but the Master Plan was bordering on creepy. It was like you knew the mindsets and psyche of everyone in school."

"They weren't that hard to figure out..." I mumbled. I suddenly felt embarrassed; I didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Which was strange. Very strange. I used to yak my head off to Leo about my newfound popularity and give him incredibly detailed accounts of my progress with no shame whatsoever.

I was proud of it! I should be proud of it. But for some reason, I wasn't.

"And yeah, suuuuure, you became popular, but what good did that do you?"

I shrugged. "I...I guess I don't know."

"Sooooo, you're not close with Nami and Vivi?"

"No, not really..."

"That's...kinda surprising," Leo chuckled. "Then again, it did take you awhile to be friends with Amy and Evangeline. So this is your true self. Not a master manipulator of minds. Just an awkward teenage girl."

"Oh shut up. And how many friends do _you _have?"

"235 on Facebook. Not to mention all my loyal followers on my IRL One Piece ask blog. And my personal blog. So I have plenty, thank you very much."

"Not including the internet."

"Zero. But manga and anime is all I need!"

"Oh my god, Leo. You nerd."

"And proud of it!"

-TRANSITION-

Yes, I am well aware that this is only two thousand words. I'M SORRY. But I really really really wanted to get something up near Halloween because

A) to wish you guys a Merry Halloween and to be safe!

2) to tell you guys about the new ask blog I have created for Cecilia and Leo! You can find it here at askthedaringsiblings. tumblr. Com (Remove the spaces). I'm expecting Halloween asks!

III) to inform you that since NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow (*internal screaming*), it's unlikely that I'll be updating on Blind. D: For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's basically a November-long event where the goal is to write a 50 000 word novel! A daunting task to say the least. Hey, if any of you wanna join up last minute (although I really wouldn't recommend it; planning in advance is essential) you can find out more at their website. Just Google 'NaNoWriMo' and you'll be there. My username is also NomSujet, if you wanna find me and be writing buddies or something :D

Well then, have fun trick-or-treating, guys! Carry a flashlight and a rabid dog for protection.

And don't forget to check all the candy for razor blades and shuriken.

-NomSujet


	16. Silent Monologue

I left Leo's room and went about wandering the building more. A cold breeze made me shiver, and I wished I still had my parka.

The floor and the walls were made of stone. I could hear my footsteps echoing around me. Somewhere in the distance, wind whistled through the halls. Occasionally, I'd feel it up close and personal.

_An atmospheric medieval castle, _I thought wistfully. _Wish I could see the damn thing._

The closest thing to a castle I had ever had was a plastic dollhouse I got for my eighth birthday. When I sat down in front of it, it was taller than I was. Needless to say, I loved it pieces. Literally. I played with it so much that over the course of its two years of life bits and chunks broke off and were lost forever.

When Leo and I cleaned out the house last spring, I managed to dig it out from my abyss of a closet. It was almost utterly unrecognizable, and a far cry from the glossy image I had held in my mind.

It was a sad shadow of its former self, the poor thing. We threw it out, along with all the other trash.

I turned another corner and felt a brief blast of wind. Then I sneezed.

"I'm going to catch a cold on top of all this if I keep this up," I muttered to myself. Surprisingly, my voice reverberated loudly, causing me to jump. Once my heart stopped pounding in my head, I stood there for a moment.

_Even without seeing anything, _I thought, not daring to speak and break the silence. _It feels so…empty…_

I could hear a soft murmur. It was like being in bed upstairs as your parents talked downstairs. It was curious; I thought I had walked pretty far.

Closing my eyes for concentration's sake (although I suppose that's pretty redundant huh?), I tried to listen carefully.

"…patients…"

"…I'm already…"

"…don't…"

"…he's here, what…"

The murmurs formed into words, albeit whispers. I opened my eyes to look around. Nope, no lights to be seen.

I remembered being back in Syrup Village. I had experienced something similar there, when I heard…

Who did I hear? Was it Jango? And Kuro?

A cold breeze crashed my train of thought.

_Might wanna move before you freeze to death, Cecilia, _I reprimanded myself. I held my cane between my legs as I rubbed my hands. _Worry about the hearing thing later._

I continued to walk.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was trying to stop myself. I didn't want to go _too _far from the others. But there was a raw joy and feeling of rebellion as I strode, and frankly, by then my feet had a mind of their own.

I hadn't heard such a silence in a long time; everyone on the ship was always noisy, noisy, noisy. Sanji made sounds and smells in his domain, the kitchen. The clanking of Zoro's weights and his snores alternated around the ship. An occasional explosion followed by a yelp from Usopp was commonplace. The girls were far quieter compared to the boys, but bits and pieces of their conversations would waft in through the open door of the woman's quarters where I spent my days.

Even at night, even if everyone was asleep, there'd still be the wind, the waves, and the creak of the ship.

It was different than being at home. And I couldn't really say I hated the change.

Back in my angst-filled days after my parents passed, I used to think that my life was like the timeline of the world: there was Before Deaths and After Deaths. Now, thinking back to it, my life was more Before One Piece and After One Piece. Well, I guess there isn't exactly an 'after' yet.

_Aren't you poetic today, Cecilia? _I sighed.

-TRANSITION-

"She hasn't done _anything _to fix the problem," Shara ground her teeth together. "Hell, she hasn't done anything _remotely interesting in the course that we've been watching her!_"

Evidently, she was pissed off. Nez raised his hands as a sign of peace.

"Truthfully speaking , she hasn't really been given any chances," he countered. "If Ravenia ever met Cecilia again, she'd probably kill her."

"Why don't _you _do something, huh?" a dull and lifeless voice spoke up. "You're Ravenia's so called…best friend, right?"

"Shut up, No Name!" she shouted. "She'll kill me too! She'll kill anyone who even dares to tell her that her 'love' shit isn't real or that she'll never get the damned green mold hair guy! You all know as well as I do that she's the most powerful one of us."

"Out of the three of us, maybe," Nez said thoughtfully. "But not the most powerful Lacriyon of all. We could find her opposite."

"Tch, I would if I damn could," Shara muttered. "He died a while ago. And I doubt he's coming back any time soon."

"Well…we'll just have to improvise then," No Name stood up. "I have a vague idea."

-TRANSITION-

Soon, I could hear shouts and fighting sounds. Unfortunately, for some reason Leo was infuriatingly vague when he described the Drum Island Arc. There was something about a man that ate everything and doctors, but that was all.

Knowing there was a battle going on outside (and possibly inside) made me feel uneasy. I turned around and walked back in the direction I came. Or at least, I tried.

I wanted to run, but I knew that I'd probably trip over my own two feet or crash into a wall or something so I settled for a brisk walk. I could see small dots in the blackness so I quickened my pace.

Suddenly, a large –BOOM- shook the air and I froze mid-stride. The fight was much louder than before, and I panicked. I groped along the wall and turned the first doorknob I felt. Heart pounding (_again_) I ran inside and closed it. I considered locking it, but I didn't want to lock myself inside.

I sank to the ground and leaned against the door. I looked furtively behind me. There were small lights and big lights moving around. Unfortunately, the big lights were the ones in the fight.

I could see Luffy, Sanji, and Chopper. There was also a purply-red light that reminded me of a plum and a dark blue, almost purple, light. Leo and Nami were much farther away.

"Aaaaah…I wish I had my bow with me…" I whined quietly. "At least I could defend myself then…"

I also secretly wished that Leo was with me. He'd probably laugh and reassure me that the battle wouldn't make its way to where we were hiding it out. And then he'd launch straight into more One Piece trivia.

I hugged myself. Has it really only been a little over two months or something? Shouldn't it be Christmas around this time already? Yeesh.

"What a shitty two months…" I muttered.

I get tossed into an alternate universe by a Brit. I got beat up in Cocoyashi. I almost get kidnapped in Whiskey Peak. I had a small victory in Little Garden but still end up breaking my brother's legs. Here in Drum, the best I could do was hide and try not to mess anything else up.

It was one failure after another. By now, my ego was the size of a pea.

_I haven't felt this shitty since Andy._

I shook my head furiously.

Ever since I entered the One Piece world, I had done more thinking and worrying than I ever had in my life. And whilst trapped inside the empty room of the castle, I did some more.

-TRANSITION-

"This feels familiar," I said as I emerged from my hiding place. Once again, I sat out of the main battle of the arc.

"Hey you!" a voice shouted behind me.

I turned to see the plum light from earlier. I tensed up, not sure if she was friend or foe.

"You're one of the girls Chopper brought in, right?" she demanded. "What the hell are you doing out of bed?"

To my surprise, she caught me by the ear and dragged me off.

"Ah, um," I stammered. "Who are you?"

"Dr. Kureha," was her reply. "Chopper's mentor."

"O-oh…" I trailed off. _That's right, he did mention there was another doctor here…_

She took me back to (what I assume was) my original room, and practically threw me in.

"If I catch you wandering again I'll use you as my next test subject!" She walked away muttering things about stupid kids and their uncanny ability to injure themselves. I sat still on the bed until the click click click of her high heels faded away.

I scrambled to my feet and felt around for my bag and weapon. Thankfully it didn't take painfully long, as they were both by my bed.

My parka was slung across the headboard, and I put it on without hesitation. After I slung on my bag and bow and arrows, I felt a lot better.

Truthfully, I wanted to see Leo too, but I feared that Doctorine would find me. I had no doubt in my mind that she would gladly carry out her threat.

Nami was no longer in her bed, and I assumed that she got caught up in the battle too. All of them were probably being treated right now.

I looked to my left, and to my surprise, I saw Zoro, Usopp, and Vivi.

"Ah, hell, screw it," I jumped off of the bed. "I feel better anyways."

Grabbing my cane, I walked towards the lights blindly (pun not intended). I could hear shouting beginning outside, and I hurried, not wanting to miss anything important.

Apparently I made it outside just in time.

"But I am a reindeer." I heard Chopper say loudly. "I have hooves and horns. I even have a blue nose!"

_Reindeer? Blue nose?_ I was extremely bewildered.

"The truth is, I _do _want to be a pirate!" he continued. "But I'm not human, I'm a monster! I can't be friends with humans, and that's why I came here just to thank you!"

His voice became quieter. "Thank you…for asking me, but I will stay here. If you want, you can visi-"

"JUST SHUT UP AND COME WITH US!" Luffy shouted, not with animosity, but with great happiness.

There was a short pause, and I could hear Chopper crying a little.

"OKAY!" was his reply. I couldn't help but smile. Looks like he finally gave in.

-TRANSITION-

Chopper went inside to say his goodbyes, and I followed him so I could fetch Leo.

"About time," he grumbled when I opened the door.

"What a heartwarming person you are," I rolled my eyes and walked towards the bed. "So do you have a wheelchair or something?"

"Yeah, I'll get myself in it," Leo answered.

"You sure?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Umhmm," he hummed in reply. There were a few seconds of creaks and groans, but he managed to seat himself.

"Put on your parka, we're leaving now," I told him.

Thankfully this time Leo didn't make much of a fuss. Once he was bundled up, I pushed him outside with him giving directions.

"By the way, Chopper's a reindeer," I commented.

"Yep."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Ahhh, I had hoped that you two would have some sort of touching moment together where he tells you his backstory and everything. Left now."

"Aaaaaand what exactly is his backstory?"

"Rudolph gone horribly, horribly wrong."

"Oh."

"Yo!" Leo called out to the others as soon as we were outside.

"Leo! Cecil!" Usopp shouted, his voice panicked. "Come on, we have to get outta here!"

"Oh right," I heard him mutter. "This is gonna be a pain."

Someone took the wheelchair out of my hands. When I looked, I saw that it was Zoro. There was a grunt, I saw Leo floating upwards…_was Zoro carrying the wheelchair? _

"Holy…" I whispered.

"Hurry up," Zoro said as he ran off. I followed him, not caring that the snow was getting into my sneakers.

_I need winter gear…_

Everyone was crowded inside this sleigh-type thing, and there was quite a bit of manoeuvring to get Leo to fit. We all piled in, and all of the lights mashed together made my head hurt.

"Let's go!" someone called out, I think it was Luffy. The sleigh started off slowly, but it soon gained speed. I was sitting on the side, so I grabbed onto the sleigh itself with both hands.

After a while, there was an odd feeling in my stomach. It felt as if…I were on an airplane…

"ARE WE FLYING?!" I screamed, my voice higher pitched than I had ever heard it.

"ISN'T IT GREAT?!" I could barely hear Leo yell.

Now, I won't into details, but I may have screamed for the majority of the trip down. Other than that, I can say that I enjoyed it.

-TRANSITION-

I let out a massive sigh of relief once I felt the stable ground under my feet. But I still couldn't be completely at ease, as the boomings of cannons sounded behind us.

The others didn't seem so alarmed, though.

"Wow!" Nami exclaimed.

"How beautiful!" I heard Vivi say.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Chopper was crying.

_Ah, great, I'm missing out, _I pouted. _Oh…well…_

I felt someone take my hand and squeeze it.

"I'll show it to you someday," Leo muttered quietly.

"Hm," I let out a small smile. "I'll look forward to it."

"What a great night for a party!" Usopp gleefully said. "A full moon and cherry blossoms!"

_Cherry blossoms on a winter island? _I was sceptical. _Usopp, I think you've drank enough._

After Chopper revealed his ability to talk to animals (which I thought was very very cool-maybe I'll ask him to translate for Harry sometime), Usopp called us to attention.

"Today, we have a new friend! Let's welcome Tony Tony Chopper!"

Laughing, we all clapped for the reindeer, and then the celebratory party was in full swing. There was happiness in the air, the alcohol was flowing.

I sat off to the side with Chopper.

"So…a reindeer, huh?" I said, a bit hesitant.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Cool."

_Cool, _I internally screamed. _Is that really the best you can think up, Cecilia?_

"Do…do you think I'm weird?" he asked.

_Well I think this entire universe is weird._

"Nah, don't worry about it."

"…okay."

Fortunately, Chopper got called away to party. I sat there for a short while, and then I decided to retreat back to the women's room.

I took off all of my gear and laid them on my bed. I then crawled under the blankets; the extra weight didn't really bother me.

_What a low-key arc this has been, _I mused. _Well, it was a nice change of pace._

I closed my eyes, and fell asleep.

-TRANSITION-

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Be safe, as always. UwU

-NomSujet


End file.
